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QUE S T I O N S 



OF THE 



DAY: 



ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL. 



BY 



y 



DR. WILLIAM ELDER 



"i- ■ 



i 




PHILADELPHIA: 
HENRY OAllEY BAIRJD, 

Industrial Publisher, 

406 "Walnut Street. 

1871. 



^i 



.i 






Entcreil according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 

WILLIAM ELDER, 

in the OfRcc ol' tlie Librarian of Congress, at Wasliington, I). C. 



Ui.NOWALT &. Brown, I'rintebs, 
t*re33 Kuilding, S. W. conici' 7tb aud Obcbluut Sts., 
p II 1 1. A D K L 1> II 1 A . 



PREFACE 



The purpose governing in the composition of this treatise was 
not so much the discussion and settlement of the questions involved 
in the matters now occupying the people of the United States, and 
awaiting solution by the thinkers and voters of the day, as a desire 
to help the pop^dar investigation, by suggesting the underlying 
principles which must, at last, solve all the problems of public 
policy. Aware of the difficulties of my task, I intended, at the 
beginning of my work, to give it the unassuming title of Studies 
in Political Economy. I intended nothing else or more, and felt 
that I must avoid the pretentious claim of a comprehensive or 
conclusive treatment of all the subjects, or all the principles prom- 
ised by such a title as "■ The Causes of the Wealth of Nations," or 
those more frequently adopted by the higher authorities, " Princi- 
ples, or Elements, of Political Economy 3" and I must be allowed, 
also, to say, in the personal confidence which a preface allows 
between an author and his readers, that un'der terror of the failures 
made, and in sight of the wrecks that strew this uncharted sea of 
speculation, and the disrepute into which the writers on Political 
Economy have fallen, I felt anxious to avoid even the most miti- 
gated form of the old reproach. This feeling drove me upon the 
choice of a title less appropriate, but chosen because it is less alarm- 
ing to the common sense of the reading public. I would not cheat 
the reader by the label upon the back of my book, but I would not 
deter him from opening it. My purpose is to provoke and assist 
inquiry in matters of such practical importance as those heroin 
discussed, and the title page must not be allowed to scare away the 
reader. 



4 PREFACE. 

This book is, nevertheless, in spirit and purpose, a series of studies 
in the principles which rule the questions of the time — the practical 
questions, which the people are engaged in settling into the policy 
of their social and economic conduct. It is an outlook upon public 
affairs, taken from an American observatory, and its discussions are 
"calculated," as astronomers say, lor the Western Hemisphere. 

Holding that Political Economy is National in its purview and 
range, as opposed to abstract, general, or cosmopolitan, I am content 
that my thouglits shall be understood to proceed from so narrow a 
stand-point of observation ; nor would it embarrass nie in the least 
if my doctrines should be pronounced not only American, but even 
Pennsylvanian, in spirit and inspiration, for I would have them 
something certain, settled, and actual, rather than the general and 
universal that comprises everything, and belongs to nothing in 
particular. For the reason that in the study oC man, T would take 
for examination a completely representative individual — neither a 
giant nor a dwarf, an idiot nor a genius, but an average well-rounded 
and well-balanced man, I adopt what I take to be a community 
whose forces, functions, and attainments best answer as a standard 
of sociefary policy ; and the reader may as well be apprised in 
advance, that this book is written under the conviction that the 
United States is the fiel^ of inquiry which, better than any otlier, 
promises the whole truth in matters of political, economic, and social 
speculation ; and, that Pennsylvania, by its eminently representative 
character, is the focal point of the great facts which the nation 
offers for instructive study. This State is neither eminently com- 
mercial, agricultural, nor manufacturing. It is neither so near the 
sea as to lose its nationality, nor so far from its coast as to be inju- 
riously separated from the outside world. Its climate and soil do 
not arbiti'arily determine or restrict its industries, but it has, in all 
things, that happy balance of economic interests, and such a diver- 
sity of nationalities in its population, as assures it a condition and 
position of equilibrium j or, let me say. in my vernacular, American 



PREFACE. 5 

English, enables her to carry her head " leveP' in economic and 
political questions. 

There is more meaning than appears at first sight in her sobriquet, 
the Keystone 'State. Such a claim as this will doubtless be disputed 
by every other State in the Union. Perhaps, not one of them would 
concede her this rank as against itself^ but if the point were sub- 
mitted to the arbitration of a general vote, she would carry the 
majority handsomely, as the majority has voted with her in every 
Presidential election since the formation of the Federal Union. 

It is not preeminence in any special excellence that we are here 
insisting upon, but, on the contrary, it is the very absence of any- 
thing like such unevenness in her chai'acteristics that gives her the 
position of an exemplar in economic policy. If there is anything 
in a complete diversification of resources and of industries, and in 
the resulting perfec^t division of productive labor, she has it. It is 
this that makes her a model for the study of economists, and it is 
from this rounded entirety of her character that her distinguished 
Political Economists, Frederick List, Henry C. Carey, and Stephen 
Colwell derived the data and drift of their studies. Upon the 
system of the first named, who confessed that he learned here all 
that he afterwards taught, we have the verdict of Grermany's accept- 
ance and practical adoption, and that verdict, besides, vindicated 
by the astonishing achievements which have recently resulted from 
a long-continued and persistent conformity to its principles and 
policy. Such has been the influence of Professor List upon the 
policy and destiny of Prussia, that it is safe to say that if he had 
not guided its industrial system, a Bismarck, a Moltke, and an 
Emperor of Grermany would have been impossible to-day. 

Northern Europe has already recognized Mr. Carey (named 
second here only because later in date), as the Authority of the 
new time, and Interpreter of its new necessities ; and I venture to 
predict that the last in the order of date and labor, Mr. Colwell, 
will, in due time be recognized as one of the greater lights in the 



6 PREFACE. 

irmament of the science when the lerraentation of the problems of 
Finance shall come to take a settled and certain form. 

The inconvenience and the labor of assigning to the several 
authors, who have been my teachers and helpers in the study of 
my subjects, their respective shares in the matter that I have used, 
and the overloading of my pages with such frequent acknowledg- 
ments as are due to them would have compelled, determined me to 
decline the task. But I had another reason or reasons for so doing ; 
promiscuous reading and study through many years, renders it quite 
impossible for me to trace home to its sources the information 
obtained and used ; besides, I would not willingly assume to settle 
the claims to originality for even the principal matters borrowed from 
them. Moreover, I would hesitate to make my authorities respon- 
sible for my use of their facts and doctrines by quoting them in 
foot notes. 

Here, however, I am bound to say that my indebtedness to Mr. 
Carey is so great that only those who are intimately acquainted 
with his works can duly estimate it. T believe that no future 
writer upon any of the subjects embraced in the wide field of his 
studies will be able to do much more, to any purpose, than give his 
doctrines some required difference of presentment and application. 

In like manner, I would acknowledge the heaviest obligations to 
Frederick List, Alexander Hamilton, and to Stephen Colwcll. To 
Parke Godwin, Esq., I am indebted largely for matter used freely 
in my second and third introductory chapters; and to Horace 
Greeley, and the domestic and foreign correspondents of the Trihime, 
for valuable information employed in discussing the current coopera- 
tive movements of the time. 

It will doubtless occur to the reader that Taxation and NatiovaJ 
Finance are among the most considerable and pressing " questions 
of the day." They hold, indeed, such a place among the topics now 
under popular and official consideration, that all other subjects of 
public interest actually converge in them. I intended to embrace 



PREFACE. 7 

them, but had uot advanced very far in their treatment until I 
found that they must be reserved for a separate treatise, if they 
were to be discussed to any purpose. There are no questions of 
public affairs so much debated, and none that so much need a more 
critical examination than they receive in the controversies main- 
tained upon them ; moreover, there are none more difficult of 
treatment. In my apprehension of them, I should be obliged to 
confront the opinions that now rule in the administration of our 
State and National affairs. I can neither agree with the policy 
of the National Treasury, nor with the most influential conductors 
of the public press. The discussion would be one unbroken con- 
troversy, requiring room, arrangement, and readers wholly incon- 
sistent with the purpose and drift of the other parts of this treatise. 
The closing chapters in the division entitled Guarantyism, are 
intended to awaken attention to the great social question of the 
time — the strife between labor and capital. He would be a bold 
man who would assume to settle this last and most difficult problem 
that has ever yet arisen in the progress of civilization — a question 
upon whose happy solution and settlement depends the general 
welfare in an eminent degree. Every earnest man's best help is 
due to it^ and I have contributed what under the circumstances I 
could. For the faults which admit of no fair justification — those 
for which I am fully responsible — I have no right to offer any 

apology. 

W. E. 

18'2i Mt. Vernon Street, 

Philadelpliia, June, 1871. 



TITLES OF THE CHAPTERS. 



CHArTE)!. I'AGE. 

I. Intkoductoky. — Political Economy 1) 

[I. " Formation of Society 14 

III. " Civilization 2G 

IV. " Migration and Occupation of the Earth 80 
V. Wealth — the Laws and Conditions of its Growth 40 

VI. Soiirccs of Advancement in Wealth 5;) 

VII. Population — Law of Increase 70 

VIIL Distribution of Wealth— Wages 85 

IX. Money, as an Exchanger of Values lOG 

X. Money, as a Producer while acting as an Exchanger 130 

XL Paper Money, and incidentally, of Banks 133 

Xll. Commerce 157 

XIII. Trade between Nations in diverse Ccographic, and Eco- 

nomic Conditions 17(> 

XIV. Free Trade and Protection 190 

XV. Doctrine and Policy of Protection 204 

XVI. The most Prominent and Plausible Objections to Pro- 
tection 331 

XVII. Protection hi tl 10 Historic Nations 335 

XVin. Guarantyism '^47 

XIX. Secret Societies 364 

XX. Cooperation— Survey of the Field 381 

XXI. •• Stores, Manufactories, Banks 395 

XXII. " In the United States 315 

8 



QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 



INTR ODUGTOR Y. 



CHAPTER I. 

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Definition of Political Economy; its subjects. — Individuality and Association, 
the centripetal and centrifugal forces of society. — Their material analogues. — 
A man the type of a society. — Province of Political Economy limited while 
its hearings are unbounded. — What it teaches the Statesman, the Moralist, and 
the Religionist. 

Political economy is the theory of human well-being, in its 
relations with the production, distribution, and consumption of 
wealth. 

Its subjects are man and those external things which minister to 
his earthly wants. It is concerned with his mental and moral 
nature, so far as these are involved in his societary relations, and, 
with his physical necessities, and those material things which are 
made to satisfy them. 

OF MAN AS A SUBJECT OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Association with his fellow-men is the first and greatest neces- 
sity of man's life. It is indispensable to his intellectual and social 
faculties, and equally so to his physical welfare. For the care and 
culture of his body, mind, and morals, and for their due enjoy- 
ments, he depends upon others from birth till death. 

For the best service of his industrial powers, he requires the 
largest and most direct commerce with the world around him. 
2 9 



10 INTRODUCTORY. 

Every individual soul holds beneficial relations with every created 
thing, and is crippled in the proportion that it is deprived of inter- 
change, possession, and enjoyment. The attractive impulses of his 
constitution, which answer to this large range of relations, gather 
men into families, communities, states, and nations, and engage 
them in a commerce of ideas, commodities, and enterprises with 
each other and with the world. Trade, travel, and correspondence 
spring from them, and the highest forms and richest fruits of human 
development are due to them. This associative attraction is ana- 
logous to the material law of gravitation, which groups the atoms of 
the universe in planets, solar systems, and constellations; ordering 
and collocating them around their several centres; the local centres- 
by counter attraction, holding each group in its own sphere and 
office, and every individual of each group in its appropriate position. 

This tendency to unity would produce the evil of uniformity in 
character, and of centralization in place, if it were not counter- 
balanced by the equally essential provision for securing and de- 
veloping his Individuality. It is the related differences of indi- 
viduals which evoke their qualities and stimulate their growth. 
Gregarious animals are too much alike to educate each other into 
higher capabilities; but men, differing in tastes, feelings, and capa- 
cities, play perpetually upon each other's powers, and develop them 
by the mutual action and reaction of social commerce ; their dis- 
tinctiveness ever growing in the ratio of the number and variety of 
the relations subsisting between them. Savage society, even within 
its limited range of mutual services and dependencies, develops the 
individual, diversifies the character, and enriches the aggregate of 
the horde, by considerably multiplying the functions and modifying 
the faculties of its members. But it is in civilized societies that the 
immense number of mental and social affinities and industrial inter- 
changes have opportunity to display their power in the development 
of the highest individuality tlirough the most varied and complete 
association. 

The operation of these two forces — Association and Individu- 
ality — are thus reciprocal and corroborative in enhancing each 
other and in promoting the progress of the man, the community, 
and the race. 

It is a universal law of matter, animate and inanimate, that dif- 
ference of quality, condition, or position, excites a manifestation of 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 11 

force and an intercliange of activities. In chemistry, new com- 
binations give new and varied powers to the atoms of matter ; in 
astronomy, difference of position and magnitude give rise to and 
determine the motions of the celestial bodies. Association and 
individuality are exact correlatives of the centripetal and centrifu- 
gal forces which hold the orbs at their appropriate distances from 
their centres, and propel them in their respective orbits; they cor- 
respond also to that counterbalance of cohesion and repulsion 
which keeps the particles of bodies in position, and gives them 
freedom, while it enforces order and harmony in action. Especially 
and eminently, association and individuality obtain in the organism 
of the human body, in which a thousand different functions are 
secured in their specialty of character and service, while they are 
perfectly associated and coordinated in integral unity. A man is a 
society in the least form, and his structure and functions intimate 
the policy of the larger society, or grand man, to which a complete 
community conforms. St. Paul (Bphesiaus iv. 16) finds the ana- 
logue of a perfect Christian society in this individualism and co- 
operation of the constituents of the human frame, and borrows from 
it an argument and an illustration. He calls the church a perfect 
man, of which Christ is the head, " from whom the whole body, 
fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint sup- 
plieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every 
part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in 
love" (or, in harmony). These forces decentralize and diversify the 
societary organism to secure individual liberty and development^ 
and at the same time coordinate the elements and subordinate their 
agencies as the harmony of entirety requires. Individuality takes 
care of the severalties; association organizes them into unity of 
general uses. 

It is admitted that the individual man has moral and spiritual 
faculties and necessities which do not fall within the province of 
political economy proper; and that communities have interests 
which in like manner lie beyond the jurisdiction of civil govern- 
ment. Yet it must be also admitted that all the interests of this 
life and, conditionally, of the next, are so far involved in the tem- 
poral welfare of man, as it depends upon material conditions, that 
political economy stands directly related to politics, morals, and re- 
ligion. It has, therefore, something essential to teach the States- 



12 INTRODUCTORY. 

mau and tho Moralist, as well as the producer, the exehauger, aud 
the consumer of comuioditios. 

As a system of the laws which govern society, its first principles 
instruct the Statesman that upon the utmost possible diversification 
of business pursuits depend the growth, the wealth and the strength 
of the State, and of the peoplo individually; that, the worth of the 
intiuitoly varied capabilities of a people is to be secured and made 
available to the whole coninmnity, only by providing for them a 
corresponding variety of industrial and social i'unctions. 

The iMoralist, who cannot be ignorant of the influence of circum- 
stances upon character and conduct, especially upon that U)ass of 
men whose iniprovenient he socks — of all, indeed, except the race 
of moral heroes and n)artyrs — may learn how to change the necessi- 
ties, which lead to violation of the social laws, into opportunities, 
which tend to induce conformity ; how enforced idleness and de- 
pendency may be replaced by self-support, and the respect which 
grows out of it for the rights of property, and the resulting interest 
felt in the general welfare ; liow a partnership in a common pros- 
perity takes away the temptations which have their source and 
provocation in the wants and necessities of poverty and privation — 
in a word; he will see and feel the force of the Great Teacher's 
injunction : Seek first the divine order of society, which He calls 
tho Kingdom of God, that men may bo delivered from a dangerous 
desire for what they shall eat, what thoy shall drink, or where- 
withal they shall be clothed. (Matthew vi. 31.) 

Nor can the Religionist rightly neglect the study of those first 
principles in the economy oi' human society which so deeply concern 
ita spiritual welfare, lie must not leave to political policy, to 
economical and philanthropic endeavor, the whole charge of reform- 
atory enterprise. His Master, who taught self-denial as a means of 
spiritual discipline, never said a word in commendation of that 
poverty which means want, ignorance, slavery, despair and death ; 
but, on the contrary, went about doing good to the bodies, as well 
as to the souls, of men. The fasting which he approved was not 
that of beggary or necessity, but the free well-principled restraint 
of the appetites. Among the beatitudes we do not find a blessing 
upon poverty in temporal goods, but upon the poor in spirit, nor are 
they pronounced blessed who sufter for huk of material benefits, but 
those who hunger aud thirst after righteousness ; and those only 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 18 

are required to renounce their wealth in whom avarice and covet- 
ousness are idolatry. 

Thus all who are either teachers or governors, with all who are 
in any-wise responsible for the well-being of their fellow men, are 
deeply concerned to know the principles and order which best pro- 
mote it. 



CHAPTER II. 

OF THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 

Of the Formation of Society: History of its progress. — Edenism : Conditions 
of the primitive race. — Communism and social harmony. — Suffering not the 
only source of development. — Savagism : Nature in rebellion to human au- 
thority ; fratricidal war. — Clans and Hordes. — Industrj' and Cemmeree nar- 
rowly limited. — Rule of the strongest. — Democracy in government. — Property 
rights held by possession. — No international or intertribal law. — Liberty with- 
out security. — In a true order rights and duties are commensurate, and life is a 
system of equitable exchanges. — Indolence, ignorance, immorality, irreligion, 
selfishness of the Savage. — Dwarfed individuality j association but little larger 
than the animal instincts prompt ; Commerce, public sentiment, and gen- 
eral ideas of the lowest grade. — Analogy to infancy of an individual. — North 
American Indians probably a degenerate race. — PATEIARC^IS^r : The family 
polity extended to a larger community. — The type of all the despotisms. — An 
association that represses individuality. — Productive Industry begins, property 
in the soil recognized, commerce initiated, money used. — Men become self-sup- 
plying. — Women and children are slaves. — Monarchy and political slavery are 
better. — Egyptian bondage more favorable than the rule of the Patriarchs. — 
The system analogous to childhood. — Barbarism : Productive industry, arts 
and sciences greatly advanced. — In advance of civilization of Western Europe 
previous to the inauguration of the new physical philosoiahy. — Characteristics 
contrasted with those of civilization. — Difference in powers of association and 
growth of individuality. — Correspondence of all the phases of societj' to ages in 
the life of an individual. 

A THEORY of human histor}', embracing its known facts and sup- 
plying such as are logically necessary to its completeness, must help 
us in the endeavor to unfold the philosophy of societary organiza- 
tion. It will, at least, serve as a study, though it falls short of 
demonstration by induction. 

EDENISM. 

The primitive state of man on the earth is a matter of faith to 
those who believe they have the knowledge of it by divine revela- 
tion, by their authorities, however inspired, or, by accepted tradi- 
tion. The record received by the Christian world from the Jewish 

14 



FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 15 

is understood to declare that the first pair were created in the image 
of their Maker, and were placed in " a garden which the Lord God 
planted eastward in Eden, in which grew every tree that is pleas- 
ant to the sight and good for food. And God blessed them and 
said unto them : be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, 
and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over 
the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon 
the earth." 

The provision for life and happiness was ample. The state of the 
primal society was perfect innocence, or, total ignorance of evil, and 
the only labor was "to dress the garden of Eden, and to keep it." 
In their food, they were restricted to " herbs bearing seed, and the 
fruit of trees yielding seed," and, they were naked. Night and 
day and the varied seasons recurred, but they needed uo defenses 
against the vicissitudes to which their posterity is exposed. 

The necessary fecundity of nature fresh from the hand of the 
Creator, and the correspondent innocence and happiness of the new- 
made race of men for whom all things were prepared, gave the idea 
of the age of Saturn, the golden age, to the Greeks and Romans; 
the reign of the gods on earth to the Egyptians, and similar con- 
ceptions of a necessary period of peace and happiness to the cos- 
mogonies of the other nations of antiquity, whose mythologies and 
philosophies have been less completely preserved, but were doubt- 
less received as well authenticated. 

The evidence, revealed, traditional, and presumptive is held suffi- 
cient to prove that man appeared upon the earth after the mineral, 
vegetable, and animal creatures had provided and furnished it for 
his comfortable residence and support — that, the race was first 
placed in the temperate zone, and that they there formed a primi- 
tive society wholly unlike those of all subsequent times. 

In such conditions, it is obvious that exclusive property in the 
soil could not exist, and that an abundant provision for the suste- 
nance of life prevented contests of interests, induced mildness of 
manners and pacific relations among the parties. While such a 
state of things continued, war and oppression would be unknown, 
and men, women and children would live as one family, free from 
sufi'ering and care. But it is just as obvious that all their happiness 
would be mainly that of the senses and affections, and but little 
refined or elevated by the delights of intelligence. 



16 INTRODUCTORY. 

We cannot say that such an order of human life must have a 
limited period ; for it is illogical to affirm that the growth of human 
faculties, any more than the faculties themselves, must spring from 
pain, privation, or the want of the conditions of well-being, for this 
would make evil necessary to the existence of good; but we know 
that the Edeuic period or golden age did fail, whatever may or 
might have been its distinctive character. 

SAVAGISM. 

The greater part of modern philosophers have declared for the 
original savagism of men, which though it may be the second phase 
of human society in actual order, is necessarily the first in contem- 
})lation of strictly inductive philosophy, resting, as is its wont, upon 
observation and experiment exclusively, or upon history, and stop- 
ping short of the First Cause and of deductions from the necessary 
truths that thence proceed. 

In this stage of societary history the earth is found in a state of 
disharmony, and the elements and subordinate terrestrial beings, 
vegetable and animal, in such resistance to man's dominion that 
life may be called a battle between the sovereign and his legitimate 
subjects. Then " the ground," as under a curse, brought forth 
thorns and thistles, the actual dominion over the fowls of the air 
and the beasts of the field passed away, and, instead, " the fear 
and the dread " of man fell upon all the inferior creatures that 
surrounded him, and he became the destroyer of the creatures of 
which, in happier conditions, he had been the governor and 
guardian. 

The Edenic harmony of the race also gave way to fratricidal 
war. The invasion of ferocious beasts and the necessity of seeking 
subsistence in the chase, caused the invention of destructive weap- 
ons, which were as often employed by men in despoiling and destroy- 
ing each other. The necessity of defense and the means of effective 
aggression led tu the union of families, and of these the horde was 
formed. 

The industry of savage tribes is confined to liunting, fishing, 
gathering the forest fruits in their season, and the fabrication of 
arms, oifensive and defensive. Internal trade is extremely limited, 
productive industry being so inconsiderable, so little varied and so 



FORMATION OP SOCIETY. 17 

little skilled, that nearly every man is the fabricator of all the 
commodities which he uses. Among them there is no useful divi- 
sion of labor in adaptation to special capabilities, and, consequently, 
no organization and but little improvement of industry. 

Women are in servitude. Man, in right of larger bones and 
stronger muscles, establishes the law of the strongest, and might 
becomes right in all the institutions of the tribe, and in its dealings- 
with surrounding tribes. In all questions of internal order and 
external action, demanding the combined force of the mass, each 
has a voice. A rude democracy prevails in the appointment of 
rulers and leaders. The right of property rests in actual possession 
and occupancy. The common law of the horde, in accordance with 
this fundamental principle, recognizes the right of gathering the 
fruits of the forest, of taking wild animals wherever they are found, 
and, of fishing in all streams. The obligations of justice between 
tribes are unknown. They acknowledge no international law, and 
observe the conditions of treaties only so long and so far as they 
seem convenient and advantageous; and the right of taking the 
goods of other tribes, by force or fraud, is as clear to them as that 
of hunting in their forests. A larger license, or less restraint of 
natural liberty, marks the institutions of the . savage than is at all 
compatible with the system of civilization; but there is less security 
for those that are allowed, and, in the same degree, the less real 
liberty enjoyed. 

In the necessary order of things the largest benefits of society 
bring with them the largest responsibilities ; duties are commensu- 
rate with rights ; enjoyments are in proportion to social relations; 
and the greater the service obtained from others, the greater the 
reciprocities demanded. Social life is a system of exchanges; 
wrongs infiicted are echoed in injuries received ; equity is a debt, 
and benevolence is the price of needed kindness. 

Insecurity of property is naturally accompanied by aversion to 
productive industry which necessarily results in a degraded, igno- 
rant, and dwarfed existence. The stimulant of hope in the future 
is wanting for the service of the present, and there is no progress. 
The moral nature of the savage ranges but little beyond the animal 
instincts, sharpened, but not refined, by his undeveloped intellect, 
which is less the director than the servant of his passions. His 
religion is a mixture of fear and selfishness. Having no father Grod 



18 INTRODUCTORY. 

he can have no brother man. He lacks the impulses that prompt 
to social amelioration, and his interest in posterity is limited to the 
instinct which centres in his immediate offspring. 

The rudimentary forces of the higher forms of society are all 
found in the savage community, else the advancement from the 
lowest to the highest were impossible ; but they are overlaid by the 
ignorance, indolence and brutality which characterize it. The sen- 
timent of Association has no nobler reach than the animal passions 
prompt; that of Individuality has no greater growth than accidental 
advantages induce. Social commerce but little transcends the gre- 
gariousness of the irrational races in extent or value ; for where 
there is but little productive industry and no permanent improve- 
ment of land, the exchanges of service must be small, and there can 
be no educational enterprise, no public sentiment, no general ideas 
or interests, no corporate feeling, and, neither the man nor the com- 
munity can take the form which promotes the highest ends and 
aims of life. 

The analogies of individual life affirm and illustrate this general 
conception. These earliest combinations of men by a just corre- 
spondence are regarded as the Infancy of human society; they are 
built upon the lowest, most common and earliest developed faculties 
of man — upon the instincts and propensities, with that modicum of 
intelligence which describes the life of the earliest childhood. In 
phrenological language the reigning faculties are acquisitiveness, 
combativeness, secretiveness, cautiousness, sharpness of the percep- 
tive powers ; all trained to the service of selfishness ; while the cor- 
rective and directing sentiments of justice, benevolence, veneration 
and the higher reason are yet inactive. 

There is good ground for believing that savages are in some in- 
stances degenerate races — remnants of a social and political wreck. 
Our North American Indians have lost their history, but they pre- 
serve the traces of a much higher social and political system than 
they have shown since they became known to Europe. It is, there- 
fore, only in relative rank that they are here treated as exhibiting 
the first or earliest stage of societary organization. We are not con- 
sidering them as subjects of successive, but of contemporaneous his- 
tory, and this for the purpose of exhibiting the spirit, the forces, 
and the differences of societary constitutions from the simplest to 
the more complex forms. 



FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 19 



patriahchism. 



This is the next societary system in an orderly study of our sub- 
ject. It is an advance upon the tribal organization and the economy 
of the savage horde. In effect it is an extension of the family 
polity to that of a larger community, in which the Chief has all the 
absoluteness of the father of a family, and an equally energetic 
government — a despotism, unchecked by the instinctive tenderness 
of immediate parentage, and marked by such abridgment of' the 
subject's liberties as hinders the development of the individual and 
the progress of the clan. 

As a community system it is circumscribed to a few favoring 
regions of the earth. The best known and in its best form is the 
system of the Israelites previous to their captivity in Egypt. It is 
of little importance, and almost impracticable in modern times. It 
centralized the community upon the family model, and was incapable 
of anything approaching a true nationality. In Palestine, after the 
Egyptian Exodus, it was greatly modified both in sacerdotal and 
political principles by the institutions of Moses. The Executive of 
his system held his office by delegation, and not in right of inherit- 
ance until tlie monarchy of Saul was established, which had arbitrary 
power in secular affairs ; the Priesthood being at the same time con- 
fided to a single family of the nation. In pure patriarehism the 
bead of the tribe is King, Priest, General and Judge — the type of 
all the various forms of despotism, and tending to all the tyrannies 
of government endured among men. It is an instance of Associa- 
tion without the conditions which favor or allow Individuality, with 
its attendant freedom, responsibility and progressiveness, to any 
considerable or worthy extent. It is, nevertheless, a form of society 
superior to the wild liberty of savage life. It is a more effective 
association. The first steps in social progress are made in it. Pro- 
ductive industry begins ; flocks are reared ; the simpler branches of 
manufacture are undertaken ; property in the soil is recognized to 
some extent, and in movables, absolutely; exchange of services 
*and values is initiated; money and other mediums of exchange 
come into use ; men become attached to the soil which they now 
own, and they depend upon settled and distributed industries for 
subsistence. They supply their wants by skill and labor, and no 
longer live exclusively by spoliation of the forests and rivers. 



20 INTRODUCTORY. 

But these ameliorating influences are too narrowly limited to 
provide for any considerable advance of the commonwealth. It is 
quite as apparent in the history of the patriarchal system of the 
plains of Asia, as of the Highlands of Scotland, that the head of 
the great family, though with less of ferocity than the savage Chief, 
is quite as perfidious and, in efiect, as despotic, and as much an 
oppressor of his subjects. His wife is a slave and his children are 
servants for life ; all women are either drudges or dishonored ministers 
of their masters' pleasures — a system of such inequality and so full 
of mischief, that the earliest necessities of growing communities 
require its modification. A single family of two or three generations 
may endure it, but a considerable population is safer and better in 
absolute political and personal slavery to masters or monarchs. 
Egyptian bondage, rigorous as it was, proved more friendly to the 
weliare of the Israelites than tlieir accustomed tribal institutions 
would have been in Mesopotamia; for in taking cave of the family 
groups, the patriarchal polity had too little control of the federative 
unity of the tribes, and utterly failed of efi"eeting an association 
comprehensive and free enough to secure internal peace or external 
defense, or the advancement of the people either individually or 
collectively. 

In analogy to an individual life, patriarchism was a government 
in its childhood, favorable to the stage of development to which it 
was adapted, but obstructive and repressive of all endeavor towards 
further advancement — an injuriously prolonged minority of the 
subjects. 

BARBARISM. 

The nest well-defined stage of national growth is a large stride 
in the social, political, industrial, and commercial institutions of a 
State. Productive industry in a great variety of forms becomes the 
occupation of the mass of the people; and the arts and sciences 
receive a great development. Through the Middle Ages the Ma- 
homedans of Asia and the Moors in Spain gave noble proofs of the 
capabilities and brilliant illustration to the polity of Barbarism. It' 
proved itself capable of very great economic success. In mechanic 
skill the nations which we call civilized in the same age, so far from 
excelling did not approach them in excellence. In architecture and 
decorative art they fell but a little way behind Greek and Roman 



FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 21 

achievement. In agriculture they were greatly in advance of all 
western Europe — all the service of wealth they had at command ; 
and in civil policy and military achievement they certainly had no 
superiors. Indeed, it is hard to find a quality of personal or na- 
tional character in which they were transcended by the people of 
the Caucasian race, prior to the inauguration of the new physical 
philosophy and its wonder-working application in arts and manu- 
factures. 

Barbarism retained the warlike spirit of the savage system and 
the despotism of the Patriarchal, but it associated men more effec- 
tively for the ends of society, and brought the progress of the race 
to the verge of the next epoch in its civil advancement. Its char- 
acteristics are most clearly defined by its contrasts with civilization. 
The chief of these are : — Its stationary spirit, resulting from its doc- 
trine of fatalism and fanatical theocracy; its directness and prompt- 
itude of distributive justice, springing from the free action of the 
passions and the simplicity of its political forms. Civilization in 
these respects being marked by its unlimited progressiveness. result- 
ing from its confidence in the dominion of natural laws over the 
elements and forces of matter, and, by the logical structure of its 
religious beliefs. Its political institutions have a flexibility and a 
conformity to the exigencies of the times and to changes of inter- 
national relations, of which Barbarism is entirely incapable ; and its 
jurisprudence is rendered circuitous by its respect for individual 
rights, by publicity of procedure, and by responsibility of its oiScial 
ministers. 

Differences of societary constitutions may be traced to their roots 
in corresponding differences of mental qualities, and the reflex in- 
fluence of institutions upon national character may be allowed ; 
but with these questions we are not now concerned, we are only 
endeavoring distinctive definitions by arraying the actual contrasts 
between the respective systems which we are considering. Beside 
those already indicated others are noteworthy. They may be seen 
.sufficiently for all that they suggest in the following tabular array : — 



22 INTRODUCTORV. 

IN BARBARISM. IN CIVILIZATION. 

Ecclesiastical absoluteness, governing | An appeal to reason admitted in the 
by divine right. ) interpretation of revealed truth. 

Literature, impassioned and imagina- ) t •. ^ i ■ i i i -i v i 

f Literature, logical and philosophical, 
tive. J 

Opinion fixed. } Opinion free. 

Doctrine indisputable. } Doctrine variable. 

Parental and marital rights, abso- 1 Parental and marital rights, 

lute. •' limited. 

„ , ,.,, 11 ] Women and children guarded by 

Women and children enslaved. | municipal law. 

These contrasts so rugged and bold in abstract statement are, 
however, much modified in eflfcct, by the fact, which must be con- 
ceded, that the larger and better guarantied liberties of civilization 
under the rule of public opinion and official responsibility are much 
weakened by the substitution of fraud for force, the cunning of the 
fox for the boldness of the lion, wherever right is to be overborne, 
or wrong inflicted or defended. 

Notwithstanding all the evasions of right, the illusions of hope, 
disappointments of trust, and the various oppressions of the more 
advanced forms of free government, the difference of operation upon 
private interests and on the destiny of the commonwealth, is very 
greatly in favor of civilized institutions. They still preserve the 
tendency to diff"use their benefits among the masses of the people, 
elevating the community as a whole, and giving a massiveness, sta- 
bility, and aggregate value and force to the better order to which 
Barbarism can never by any possibility attain. Civilization has all 
that is possible of human welfare in its prospect. Barbarism is 
limited by its incapacity of change or growth, and is unfitted for 
the command of that infinite power of association which a perfect 
development of individuality secures. 

We have indicated or intimated a certain correspondence of char- 
acteristics between the societary phases of the human race or races, 
and the marked stages in the life and growth of an individual. 
There must be such analogies if each man is a representative of 
the race, and the collective race is but a comprehensive abstract of 
the individual man. We do not, however, mean to affirm that the 
several kinds of societies flow or grow into each other as the suc- 
cessive stages of an individual life do, for it is not proved that the 



FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 23 

"varieties" of mankind are capable of sucli transition or develop- 
ment from the savage or patriarchal, or even from the barbarian, 
into the advanced form of that which we call the maturest state, 
such as civilization assumes, with its capability of indefinite pro- 
gression. We mean only that there is an analogy or representative 
image of the one in the other. The reader will have noticed an ana- 
lytic parallelism shown in the savage and individual infant. Fol- 
lowing this thought, we have spoken of patriarchism as the analogue 
of childhood; or the period between the seventh and fourteenth 
year of individual life. Let us look for the correspondence : Child- 
hood is distinguished from the next succeeding^ as from the im- 
mediately preceding stage, by its facility of faith, its docility under 
authority, the dedication of its endeavors to preparation for action, 
and its incapability of any effective agency in the world's work. 
It is dreamy and inefficient. It has not reached the productive 
period in the useful arts. It has few or no social relations — no 
place in the world's life. It has not the impulse of self-assertion, 
nor has it caught the spirit of propagandism. Its period is marked 
by growth without corresponding increase of strength. It is a 
state of accumulation without responsive action. It has aflfection 
without friendship; culture without influence; crude, incoherent 
acquirement, without recognized ends or fixed aims. Its acquire- 
ments are only a stock of possibilities, which the age in advance 
must draw out and actualize. Is not this picture, if drawn at 
length, a reflex of the patriarchal polity, with which we are best 
acquainted ? The childhood of Israel found the refuge of its fee- 
bleness, and was nursed into strength, in barbaric bondage. The 
oracles committed to their custody received their interpretation and 
realization in the system which supplanted theirs. The patriarchal 
got its evolution first under the institutions of Egypt, and eventu- 
ally from the Grentile nations, whose conditions, at the era of the 
earliest practical realization, were in the state which we call bar- 
barism, and by analogy, the youth of the race. 

Barbarism fitly answers to the analogous period of youth or adoles- 
cence, which is usually bounded by the fourteenth and twenty-fifth 
years of the individual. It is the age of chivalry, enthusiasm, undoubt- 
ing faith in its destiny, recklessness of risk and ardent devotedness to 
vague and unlimited enterprise. It is impatient and discontented 
with its inheritance ; it demands a new world for its fresh new life. 



24 INTRODUCTORY. 

Routine is as repulsive as imprisonment, and it forces circumstances 
with an industry that employs muscle more than mind, and is led 
by fancy rather than philosophy; it would achieve all that it 
imagines, and dreams that there is nothing beyond its compass — an 
insanity of aspiration barely checked in manifestation by the des- 
potic authority of manners and opinion ; the fates are its gods ; it 
is passionate, peremptory, pitiless ; its fortunes are predestinated,^ 
and it gives circumspection to the winds. 

Are there not parallel points here to the history of Ancient 
Egypt and Middle-age Arabia? The vigor and fire, aye, the fine 
frenzy of youth glows in all their doings and darings, and their 
monuments, of all kinds, tangible, historical, traditional and fabu- 
lous, are all alike poetical. 

In fine contrast with the youthlike impetuosity of barbarism, 
with its quick activity of imagination, exaggerated self-confidence, 
irreflective courage and passionate love of glory, we have the sobered 
thoughtfalness of manhood in advanced civilization, the circum- 
spection that comes with experience, and the rigorous logic that 
law has impressed by its penalties upon willfulness ; the warring 
spirit of enthusiasm is replaced by the serene masterdom of mind 
adjusted to the conditions of its subjects, and executive wisdom 
evades resistance and, by administrative address, secures success. 
Youth is in rebellion against the past; manhood makes experience 
its minister; and the issues register the unlike results. Barbarism 
ultimates itself in its achievements ; its monuments are its bounda- 
ries, "the butt and sea-mark of its utmost sail;" its triumphs stand 
for its tombstones. But the highest attainments of civilization are 
fresh points of departure to higher and greater things beyond ; they 
are only the scaflFuldings of the edifice it rears, and every structure 
it erects for its service is also an observatory for a wider scope of 
aims and efforts. The works of barbarism, like the system, are 
arrested at the stage of success, and stand still in a completeness of 
fulfillment, which civilization never meets or confesses. The one 
declares its plan accomplished, the other indicates its own perpetuity. 

Note. — Comte, author of the " Positiye Philosophy," remarks, that every 
thoroughly developed individual passes through three mental stages : First, 
religious ; second, theoretical or hypothetical ; third, matter-of-fact or practical ; 
and that nations have the same tendency, that is, a thoroughly developed race or 
family of men has a growth through corresponding phases. The theory whidh 



FORMATION OF SOCIETY. 25 

this acute observer of facts deduces from these propositions is not by any means 
sustained, but the facts are sound. They apply happily to the respective ages of 
Childhood, Youth and Mature Manhood, and the characteristics he assigns to 
them may be thus translated in our use of them : for " religious " read faith and 
obedience; for "hypothetical" read speculative, adventurous, enthusiastic; 
" matter-of-fact " may stand- as serving sufficiently well for our apprehension of 
the soberly philosophical mood of the matured mind and method of advanced 
manhood; and, let it be noted, that only those nations who have actually entered 
upon the last stages are proved capable of rising through and over-passing the 
previous grades. The students of Ethnology can have no difficulty in applying 
this theory to the diverse nationalities in history. 

Comte's scale of progressive development has met an universal acceptance, and 
has had the influence to carry with it, besides, his illogical deduction that the 
mind upon entering each new stage throws off the preceding — that the stage of 
the hypothetical discards that of faith, and is itself in turn rejected in the last, 
the matter-of-fact or philosophical state. This is decidedl3'- unphilosophical in 
theory, as it is untrue in fact. Faith, speculation and fact, if they all have, or 
find, or hold the truth, harmonize, focalize, and persist in the issue that realizes 
them. 

3 



CHAPTER III. 

CIVILIZATION. 

Civilization, barbarism and savagism geographically distributed. — Only the Euro- 
pean families have passed through all the stages of societary growth. — No 
instance or sign of decadence in them. — Asiatic communities culminate in bar- 
barism. — Nations on the borders of Asia only are stationary. — Africans are not 
a decaying race; they cannot be classed with the American Indians. — Their 
character in the United States. — Not to be judged by our present standards of 
capability and fitness for the world's uses. — African race resembles European 
women. — The future must solve the problem of their societary relations. — Civil- 
ization elastic and composite. — Its late development. — India in advance of 
England in the fourteenth century. — The Moors superior to the Spaniards in the 
fifteenth century. — The Dark Ages in Europe. — Monarchy introduced order and 
initiated progress in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. — Intellectual and re- 
ligious revolutions of the fifteenth century. — The age of the nascent industries, 
geographical discoveries, and the inauguration of man in the dominion of matter. 
— Progress of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. — -The great career of the 
race carried forward by the people of European Origin. — Co-operative unity 
of diverse races. — Vicious generalities of the prevalent theory of Political Econ- 
omy. — No single kindred is cosmopolitan. — The whole history of civilization is 
its only adequate definition. 

Civilization connects itself historically with certain races of 
men, and is limited by geographical lines. In general statement it 
may be called the European form of societary life ; as in like general 
terms Asia is barbaric, and Africa, for the want of any more exact 
term, may be classed as savage. These are the social, economic and 
political distinctions of those three portions of the globe in modern 
times; and in America civilization is found in different degrees of 
maturity, only in that portion of the continent which is occupied by 
European Colonists. Neither Asia nor Africa has organized a 
civilized government at home, nor formed one abroad within the 
reach of authentic history. If the Asiatic or African border of the 
Mediterranean Sea gave to Europe its superior races, they were 
exceptional peoples, and belonged to Europe by constitutional char- 
26 



CIVILIZATION. 27 

acters, as nearly as their geographic origin bordered upon the 
territory which they were destined to occupy and illustrate ; and 
none of the regions that lay beyond them have shown any similar 
capabilities since the earliest known localities of the tribes of men. 
Moreover, it is of the European people only that it can be affirmed, 
with the assurance which experience aifords, that they are capable 
of passing through all the stages from savage to civilized conditions, 
and who give indications of a progress in institutions and attainments 
without assignable limits in the future. Besides, none of the fami- 
lies or kindreds of Europe have ever yet shown any of the signs of 
declension which threaten the catastrophe that has already settled the 
fate of Asiatic and Egyptian nations, and of the aborigines of North 
and South America. No people found from the Mediterranean Sea to 
Scandinavia, or between the Ural Mountains and the North Atlantic 
Ocean, have within the range of history retrograded toward extinc- 
tion. - These people, whether German or Celtic, in Southern or 
Western Europe in time past, and now before our eyes, in the North 
and East, are demonstrating their capability of growth and culture 
into the highest style of human development. While, in marked 
contrast, Asiatic communities seem to culminate in barbarism, and 
are there arrested or thence .decline, as if their constitutional 
maturity were reached at periods corresponding to the childhood or 
youth of the nations that now rule the world. Europe has emerged 
into civilization, settled America, and conquered whatever she 
desired of Asia, while the countries in which power and glory had 
their earliest sway have been retrograding, absolutely as well as 
relatively, from the time that the western mind seized the dominioa 
of matter and undertook the destiny of the world. 

A growth of the families of men corresponding to the epochs of 
individual life, and a decay like its decline toward extinction or 
death, has happened, and is threatened to the peoples which we 
style barbaric ; but none of the European nations have perished ; 
none of them are in the category of the dying. History has not 
set up the tombstone of a single branch of the Germanic or Celtic 
families, and the analogy has no true application to them. It is 
worth noting in connection with this fact, that the only members of 
this great kindred, ascertained by geographic boundaries, which are 
now unprogressive, are those that lie nearest to stationary Asia and 
unenlightened Africa; Spain, Italy and Greece, are borderers of 



28 INTRODUCTORY. 

the sea that separates the ancient from the modern world of human 
supremacy. 

The people of Middle and Southern Africa are ranked as savages 
for want of a more sharply defined classification. But they do not 
resemble our American Indians in anything but inferiority to the 
foremost of the races. The latter are incapable of improved condi- 
tions. They are a dying people. The former have not yet shown 
any capability of self-development. In their native country they 
are without literature, science, and the fine and useful arts. They 
have organized no governments; the}' have no commerce, and they 
have no religion that can improve their life; but they have the 
physical health, simplicity, docility, and joyousness of childhood, and 
they show no signs of decay. Under circumstances the most un- 
favorable for any other people, they have improved among us to the 
utmost limit of their opportunity, and in the most tempting situa- 
tions they have exhibited the kindliest qualities of character. 
Through the whole period of servitude, through the great American 
rebellion, and since, they have disappointed every unfavorable pro- 
phecy of their conduct in their changed relations to society, and 
have as much surpassed the hopes of the most sanguine philanthro- 
pists. We do not know this people; we have never known them. 
We cannot know them while we judge them by our standard, and 
hold that standard to be unchangeable for the future that probably 
lies generations in advance of us. Just as reason and experience 
find essential differences in the respective histories and destinies of 
the civilized and barbaric races, so we may suspect that the African 
is not measurable by the character and functions of the European. 
If they should after fair trial be found to be specifically diiferent in 
the kind of mental power that is mastering the material conditions 
of terrestrial life, may they not have some other modification of 
mind not incompatible or incongruous, but helpful to the work of 
the world ? Childhood and youth co-exist with and even corrobo- 
rate maturity. The feminine mind and character are quite as 
broadly diff"erent from the masculine. These people in the mass 
more strongly resemble European women than they do the men of 
any other race, and they may weave into the web of social life well 
enough to vary and thus enrich it. Our judgment to be just and 
wise must wait for the facts — wait till we know what the future 
shall require of them and ourselves, and how they and we may 



CIVILIZATION. 29 

answer the requirement. We know, a 'priori^ that the noblest or- 
ganisms are those which have the most numerous and most vari- 
ously endowed constituents, and that the greatest possible diversity- 
is compatible with peace and unity — that the limestone in our bones 
is organized into harmony of use with the finest nerves of sense and 
the highest organs of mind. The present dominant race of men 
live and move and have all their resources of power in the inductive 
philosophy. In this matter their own system binds them to wait for 
experiment and observation to supply the data of their reasonings. 

We had no instance of a nation born in a day — of a people en- 
franchised at a blow. We could not believe it possible; above all, 
we could not believe them capable. Henry the Eighth hanged 
seventy thousand new-made freedmen of our own race and kindred 
during his reign. Political liberty seems impossible to Mexico after 
fifty years of discipline in freedom. France has gone back from 
Republicanism to Monarchy, and from Monarchy to chaos with such 
portentous facility that her varied examples taught us no hope of 
sudden adaptation to higher forms of social and civil life ; Greece 
and Rome have declined for centuries in face of surrounding en- 
lightenment and progress ; and the precedents were contrary to the 
hope. History warranted our fears and suggested the preparation 
of gradualism — preparation for liberty, but forbade the trial in 
liberty. Yet, it is done; done so far safely, and so far as done, 
wonderfully. But is the trial yet over? Or, is it only in our coun- 
try and in our age that the habit of history can be broken ! There 
must be something in this, for the immigrants from all Europe, in- 
capable of political liberty at home, immediately become sovereigns 
here. The negro may in a generation become an American citizen 
complete; for it seems that anything, that is, any next thing, is 
possible to us. 

There must be truth in experience, for it is facts accomplished ; 
but experience is not always directory. We never fully understand 
the present till it is past; till other experience interprets it; till 
we see it on all sides and to the core of its meaning. A great 
thing, surprisingly accomplished, never allows of any future thing 
which shall surpass it or destroy its value. This is the reason that 
all the new we have now was the impossible of the past; yet it is 
the character of this age of wonder-working to gain assurance of 
greater, from even the most astonishing present, success ; and we 



30 INTRODUCTORY. 

are not discouragingly doubtful, however reluctant to undertake tlie 
fusion and reconciliation of all the immigrant races. We begin to 
believe that we can, in the United States unite, conciliate and 
organize the differences of the wide world. 

It is apparent in the institutions and in the intrinsic qualities of 
savagism, patriarchism, and barbarism, that neither of them, nor 
any mixture of them, can accomplish the social destiny of man ; 
but civilization, retaining whatever is available in them, and adding 
what it has of its own — as human nature, by reproducing all that is 
excellent of the inferior orders of animal life and superadding its 
own distinctive powers — provides for its predominant agencies and 
achievements. This analogy is worthy of attention for the support 
it gains from the unity of nature's plan of the government of all 
the forms of related existence in their several contributions to the 
chief and highest designs of the terrestrial system ; rank and right 
of rule being graded by the character and number of the powers 
possessed, and by the dignity and worth of the offices to be filled 
and of the ends to be attained. 

In the earlier stages of civilized societies they compared unfavora- 
bly with the barbaric states of the higher grades, as infancy is in- 
ferior to even a mediocre maturity. India was considerably in 
advance of England, even so lately as in the fourteenth century, in 
all that constitutes the well-being of a people — in industry, arts, 
and domestic and foreign policy ; and the Moors were the superiors 
of the Spaniards for at least two centuries of the time which they 
held possession of Middle and Southern Spain. The courts of Cor- 
dova and Granada were the most splendid and polished in Europe 
from early in the thirteenth to the middle of the fifteenth centu- 
ries. Indeed, the dark ages of Christendom were resplendent with 
the arts, arms, learning and science of barbaric Arabia, Persia, 
India and those European countries that were conquered and occu- 
pied by the Mohammedans. From the downfall of the Roman Em- 
pire the ensuing six centuries of the history of the races which 
now hold the mastery of the world, were marked by ignorance, 
superstition, vice, lawlessness, poverty, and weakness. 

It was not until the middle of the fourteenth century that Eng- 
land fairly entered upon her career of manufacturing industry, 
although Flanders and Toulouse had made a promising beginning 
nearly two hundred years before. Previously, throughout Christian 



CIVILIZATION. 31 

Europe feudalism, which is a near approach to the barbaric polity 
of Asia, was the prevailing form of social and political life. 

It was in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that monarchy 
centralized and organized efl&cient governments among them ; under 
the Tudors in England, and the house of Yalois in France j in Ger- 
many, under the elective Emperors. In Sweden, Holland, and 
Hungary a like improving change occurred, and Spain and Por- 
tugal had fairly put themselves in the front of the age. 

The fifteenth century was the period in which states and nations 
were firmly established upon the ruins of feudalism, and of the 
municipal republics which had failed to organize society upon 
principles which could secure general progress and prosperity. It 
was the age of intellectual and religious revolution, of great 
physical activity, travels, discoveries, and labor-saving and space- 
conquering inventions, such as the passage to India round the Cape 
of Good Hope, the discovery of America, the invention of printing, 
and hosts of cognate forces that inaugurated the modern dominion 
of men over their material conditions. The sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries carried all these enterprises forward rapidly toward 
maturity, and left the eighteenth rich in accumulations of power 
acquired, and that knowledge which is the source of all attainable 
power. It was ready to replace the monarchical institutions which 
it inherited by representative governments, more or less bene- 
ficial, by responsible magistrates, enlightened liberty, freedom of 
thought, and through these, a grand advance in the mastery of the 
elements and forces of matter, with a prospect so much grander 
than all actual achievement, that the present age feels as if it were 
but entering upon the gi«eat career of humanity. In all that has 
been accomplished — the work of three or four hundred years — the 
people of European origin have had the exclusive agency, and they 
are thus distinguished from the races and nations whose careers 
have been, run or are now running to their close. 

All these considerations concerning the distinctive characters of 
the four or five varieties of political and social polities of human 
societies, and of the kindreds and peoples under them, are produced 
here, as well as for other purposes, to show that the unity of the 
families of man is not the unity of likeness or identity, but of diver- 
sity and its possible harmonies in that better order, of which they 
are capable, than any known in the past or the present, 



32 INTRODUCTORY. 

The study of Political Economy has suffered more from a vicious 
system of generalization than from any other or all other errors of 
fact and opinion. The various races of men, whatever may have 
been their origin, or whatever the causes of those differences of 
character, use and destiny which now exist among them, cannot be 
confounded in a single class, or covered with a common description 
without sacrificing all the benefits of philosophic study, and all the 
useful guides of practical treatment; and, in keeping with this fact, 
is the corresponding one, that while all the families of men, in the 
aggregate, or in one category, may be called cosmopolitan, and 
destined in their adjusted varieties to the inhabitation of the whole 
earth, no single kindred or people are or can be so, but under a 
distributive impulse, each grand class has its own assigned locality 
with specially fitting conditions and a special fitness for them. 

We are not yet prepared for a summary or complete statement of 
the characteristics of civilization. They can be given only in the 
details which are the history and the prospects of its service in the 
world's advancement. Upon these we shall enter after some further 
preliminaries are disposed of. 



CHAPTER lY. 

MIGRATION AND OCCUPATION OP THE EARTH. 

Of Migration, and of the Oeeupation of the Earth : The habitats of men 
ruled by their natal ijeculiarities. — Colonization limited by isothermal lines or 
, zones; Historic illustrations. — Climatic law of migration in the United States. — 
Negro population accommodated to change of temperature by change of occu- 
pation. — The march of science, literature and religions guided by climatic 
law. — The doctrine of descent from a single pair of progenitors not involved in 
the question. — The harmonies of a natural distribution of the races secured. — 
Special appetencies determine the destinies of the races. — Federal unions 
accommodate and preserve specialties in progressive consummation. — The 
United States a model, and a prophecy of normal free confederations else- 
where. — Three climatic zones of the United States. — Their boundaries. — This 
law must rule the future permanent unions of States and Kingdoms. 

It is the custom of writers, especially of moralists and theologians 
to speak of man as cosmopolitan j that he is so much less aiFeeted 
by climate than plants and the inferior animals that he is almost 
independent of the meteorological conditions of his habitation on the 
earth. This notion needs correction. The species, or collective 
mankind, is adapted to all climates ; but the varieties or races are 
governed by their natal habitudes in their fitness for and choice of 
permanent location. Artificial defenses against vicissitudes of tem- 
perature, and a considerable constitutional power of accommodation, 
enable the enterprising men of trade and travel to avoid the worst 
and most immediate consequences of a change of atmospheric con- 
ditions. The spirit of commerce and of conquest carry men all over 
the world, and across the zones; but colonization follows accustomed 
temperatures. The barbarous invaders of Rome came down upon 
Italy from the north, northeast and northwest, traversing perhaps 
five degrees of latitude, into a more genial region ; but they retired, 
after a temporary sojourn, to their native climates. The Saxons 
could permanently inhabit England, for their native land lay in the 
same latitude ; and the Normans had only to cross the English chan- 

33 



34 INTRODUCTORY. 

nel to change tlieir residence without an important change of the 
climatic conditions to which they had been accustomed. 

That a law of climate rules the migration and colonization of the 
natives of the diverse regions of the earth is abundantly proved by 
ancient and modern history. We cannot here cover the whole 
ground in detail, but a comparatively few instances are conclusive. 
The reader can readily fill up the outlines which we give with the 
proofs that offer themselves. His attention is invited to such as 
the following : — 

The Mohammedan conquests in the east were in the line of tem- 
perature that corresponds to that of Medina from Arabia through 
Persia into India; and their western progress upon the south shore 
of the Mediterranean, and their occupancy of Southern Spain fall 
within the same isothermal lines. Mexico lies in the same belt of 
temperature with Spain, and Cuba touches its southern border. 
European conquests of countries outside of their own zones of cli- 
mate are no exceptions to the law. Rome when she held the world 
in subjection inhabited Italy only. Military posts and governmental 
agents were all that constituted her presence in regions lying north 
or south of her. In this, England and France resemble the ancient 
mistress of universal Europe. They hold all their foreign provinces 
of unlike climates by their armies of occupation and oflScers of civil 
administration. There were not so many as fifty thousand white 
persons in the British West India Islands when the colored popula- 
tion amounted to eight hundred thousand. In 1861 the population 
of East India was variously estimated at from one hundred and 
thirty-five to two hundred millions, while the English people there 
amounted to only one hundred and twenty-five thousand nine hun- 
dred and forty-five persons, of whom eighty-four thousand and eighty- 
three went to compose the British ofl&cers and men of the Indian 
army, and twenty-two thousand five hundred and fifty-six consisted 
of men and boys in the civil service, the whole remainder (nineteen 
thousand three hundred and six) being females. 

This law is found to rule in the colonies or provinces of all the 
European nations who have any foreign possessions lying consider- 
ably, north or south of their own line of mean annual temperature. 
But the most remarkable exemplification is found in the settlement 
of the United States, whose territory, already occupied, embraces 
twenty-three degrees of latitude, and by its great variety of tern- 



OCCUPATION OP THE EARTH. 35 

perature may be divided into three climatic zones. In tliese States 
there has long been a constant emigration from the east or Atlantic 
coast toward the Rocky Mountains, and recently to the Pacific Ocean 
coast. These emigrants are American born and have unlimited 
liberty of choice as to their place of settlement upon the new lands 
of the West. Beside these, there is an immense influx of foreigners 
mainly from Western Europe, who are equally free to choose their 
places of habitation. Every tenth year a census of the resident 
population is taken, and their nativities are ascertained and noted. 
These returns give us these surprising results : Only one of every 
fourteen persons is found resident out of the belt or zone of their 
native temperature, whether born in Europe or in the Eastern 
States of the Union. That which seems to contradict or to be an 
exception to the laW; is the presence and prosperous condition of 
the African negroes in the semi-tropical States devoted to the cul- 
tivation of cotton and rice, whose mean annual temperature is, say, 
fifteen or twenty degrees of Fahi-enheit lower than that of their 
primitive African birthplace, and at the same time fifteen degrees 
above that of England, and ten above the south of France. How 
are these people adjusted to the difference from the natal climate 
of their progenitors, and fitted to a residence so unfriendly to the 
people of even the most southern portion of Europe ? We suggest 
that the explanation may be found in the changed conditions of 
their life. In tropical Africa they did not need, and indeed could 
not labor in the fields under a steady heat considerably above eighty 
degrees the year round,* bat in the Grulf States of North America 
they are exposed only to an average heat of about seventy degrees, 
in which they can work as healthfully as an Englishman or his 
descendants can labor in the fields of Pennsylvania in a mean tem- 
perature of fifty degrees. It is but a change from tropical to semi- 
tropical heat, and the exposure and the toil of the negro's new 
residence mediates between these points so as to qualify him for 
exertion which Africa would not allow, and which a constitution 
from much higher latitudes could not bear. The animal heat gen- 
erated by labor compensates for its reduction in the changed 
climate. 

The familiar adage — "■ Westward the Star of Empire takes its 

® The isothermal charts found in atlases and school maps of fifteen or twenty 
years ago, are not reliable for sucti an inquiry as this question demands. 



36 INTRODUCTORY. 

way" is literally true, and it is also true that science, literature and 
religion observe the same line of march, and for the obvious reason 
that the races who modify opinion and speculation according to 
their respective mental and moral constitutions, and impress them- 
selves upon all their pursuits, enterprises, and achievements, migrate 
along their several lines of climate. 

The received doctrine of the origin of all the varieties of men 
from a single pair of progenitors, and their propagation from a 
single centre, presents no difficulty to the acceptance or admission 
of the law which we are considering; for, however the existing dif- 
ferences of nationality in all their shades, from the tropical African 
to the best example of the European, were originally produced; 
whether by natural causes providentially employed, or by miracu- 
lous adjustment of each kind to its assigned locality, it is certain 
that such differences actually exist, and that au imperious law of 
distribution rules in the human, as in the animal and vegetable oc- 
cupancy of the earth, and thus secures the ultimate subjection of 
the globe in all its varied regions to a harmoniously appropriated 
humanity. 

The proper liberties of mankind are all under the government 
of law, and the purposes of the Creator are effected by its orderly 
control. The diverse inhabitants of the earth have their proper 
domiciles secured to them by this overruling law of migration and 
inhabitation. No present superiority of any race can permanently 
contravene it. The surviving wanderers will in good time be re- 
claimed to their native climates. In every zone, valley, and moun- 
tain; on every continent, island, and peninsula, this grand law of 
inheritance will hold the land for the natural claimants, and will 
expel the usurpers by constraining their return to their own. The 
complete subjugation of the material world, under the laws which 
govern it, seems to be the mission of the European families of 
mankind. When their proper work is well accomplished, the 
Asiatic and African tribes, and the natural occupants of the Pacific 
islands which shall survive, will enter upon their own domains and 
go forward to the fulfillment of their several destinies. Then comes 
the time when contrasts without collisions shall enrich the earth 
with all their fullness and force, and differences shall be ruled into 
perfect harmony. 

The law of migration and settlement rooted in the special appe- 



OCCUPATION OP THE EARTH. 37 

tencies of the various races of men, will ever protect and maintain 
their primitive diiferences of endowment, and their diverse services 
in that corroborative unity which qualifies the aggregate or grand 
man for his manifold work in the world. Not an enforced and con- 
fused homogenity, but a harmonized diversity is demanded to fulfill 
the functions of the species. The brotherhood of men is not a con- 
glomeration of likenesses, but an orderly organization of related dif- 
ferences. This tendency is manifest in the modern changes in the 
political governments of both the old and the new world. Federal 
unions among the families of the nations are its expression and prom- 
ise. The petty states of France, G-ermany, Austria, Italy, and that 
cluster of old-time independencies which are now included in the 
Empire of Russia, are striking examples. Most of these Unions 
were at first in a great degree efi'ected by force, under the ambitious 
impulse of territorial aggrandizement ; but more recently these 
have been conformed, more or less, to the principle of voluntary as- 
sociation, and the normal order of natural law, which, while it 
associates difiierences, respects them, and maintains the authority, 
and the duly regulated functions of local centres, at the same time 
that it embraces them in the larger and more general entireties 
which best secure internal peace, and provide external defence. 
In former times nations, wholly unfitted to unite, and incapable 
of beneficial union, were subdued into unnatural and repugnant 
nationalities; but more recently, federative unions are effected by 
the free play of natural attraction. North G-ermany is rapidly 
organizing the kindred peoples into a political union. Italy has 
taken some effective steps towards its proper reorganization. Austria 
has parted with its incongruous trans-alpine possessions, and has 
reconciled Hungary to such governmental relations as are for the 
present adapted to its specialties of character and position. The 
broken balances of Europe are not all rectified, but they are in pro- 
cess of regulation according to natural order, and the promise of a 
due adjustment is every year better and better assured; the time 
is rapidly approaching when political changes of the nations will 
be wholly internal; or, those reformations of national polity which 
remain to be accomplished, will be wholly improvements in the 
civil and social order of domestic affairs. 

The G-overnment of the United States of America seems to be 
the model and the prophecy of the policy which is to prevail, and 



38 INTRODUCTORY. 

to determine the political institutions of all peoples, who are near 
enough and like enough, to require and to accept common or gen- 
eral governments. 

In North America we have at least three distinctly different zones 
of climate, and a corresponding difference of their inhabitants. The 
law which we have been considering, in free operation would, and 
in time will, throw New England and the States due west of it and 
the British provinces, into one class, with the valley of the St. Law- 
rence for their centre, and its waters for their easy communication 
and domestic commerce. The Middle States from Northern Penn- 
sylvania to Cape Hatteras, in North Carolina, and all between these 
lines extended westwardly, are fitted for another class; and the 
semi-tropical States lying south of the isothermal line which enters 
at Cape Hatteras, and coincides approximately with the northern 
border of the Gulf States, may be taken to mark the division of the 
southern from the middle climatic zone of the Union. 

The appropriate industries and special interests of these divisions 
exhibit sufficient diversity to modify their respective pursuits and 
policies, and to demand a conforming adaptation of domestic enter- 
prise and regulation. Of such adaptation in promotion of special 
interests, and freedom of sectional tendencies, the federal and local 
systems are admirably capable; and under similar constitutions the 
peoples everywhere who are nearly related in blood and manners, 
may have all their specialties protected, and all their common char- 
acteristics preserved, combined, and energized. Political policies 
may vary the forms of union and intercourse among States naturally 
allied, giving them more or less intimacy of commerce, and more or 
less unity of civil government, in the transition age of societies, but 
the climatic law will constantly grow more and more effective, and 
will never be overruled nor long postponed. 

Neither antiquity of claim, nor vested rights, nor opinions and 
theories, which the change of times has overthrown in the past, and 
will again and again modify in the future, can finally settle the rela- 
tions of contiguous States of naturally allied peoples; neither can 
military force nor conventional forms, nor the obligations of treaties 
overrule the physical and moral laws of human nature, They may 
be postponed and evaded, but providential provisions are constantly 
in the endeavor to enforce them, and will ultimately prevail. 



OCCUPATION OF THE EARTH. 39 

Note. — This law of climate in the government of human migrations, was first 
announced in general terms by Mr. Carey, in the Boston Transcript, of 26th No- 
vember, 1859. It was not known to him when he published the third and last 
volume of his "Principles of Social Science," in February, 1859, and there are 
several portions of that work which require correction by his later discovery. In 
the Philadelphia Press of 22d of December, 1859, the writer of this treatise gave 
this uewly-announced law an ample statistical elucidation and vindication, under 
the caption of " Pennsylvania's Position in the Union." 



CHAPTER V. 

OF WEALTH — THE LAWS AND CONDITIONS OF ITS GROWTH. 

Wealth — the laws and conditions of its growth : Definition of capital. — Defini- 
tion of Wealth. — False theories built upon a basis of disorder. — The Malthu- 
sian School. — Their "preventive and corrective checks" of Providential mal- 
adjustments! — Relation of sustenance to numbers. — Popular error. — McCulloch 
follows Malthus with a statistical statement of disproportion of food to popula- 
tion. — Ricardo's progressive exhaustion of the soil ; Mill repeats and indorses 
them. — The order of earthly things only the road to ruin, temporary mitigations 
only end in despair. — British political economy confronted with British statis- 
tics. — Lowe, Levi, and Gladstone on the facts.— Data of British estimates. — 
Wealth doubles in Great Britain in twenty years, population in fifty years. — 
Accelerated rate of enhancement of wealth in the latest decennial period. — 
Wealth of France increasing faster than that of Great Britain. — The figures 
and facts. — Her increased product of wheat, sugar and potatoes. — Food product 
doubled in thirty-five years, population in two hundred and seventy-seven 
years. — In the densest populations of Europe the supply of food greater, and 
growing faster than the increase of demand. — Relative supply and requirement 
in the United States. — Rate of increase of population and wealth ; the former 
doubling in twenty-three and a half years ; the latter in eight and a half years. — 
Annual product not capital value, the measure of supply. — Decennial census 
reports of annual products of industry in the United States, not above two- 
thirds of their actual value. — The deficiency demonstrated. — Varied rates of 
increased production in particulars. — Increase of product of wealth in Great 
Britain and the United States twice as great in the decade 1850-60 as in that 
of 1840-50. — A law of increase indicated. — In the normal order of civilized in- 
dustries, sustenance outgrows population in accelerating movement. 

By wealtli we do not mean capital, merely in its common ac- 
ceptation, though capital in this sense is embraced in it. 

Capital, in business language, means an accumulation of values 
employed fur further production or profits. In a broader and better 
sense, it embraces not only improved land, ships, wagons, ploughs, 
machinery, food, clothing, money, and the like tangible subjects of 
property, but ideas and credit, as much as these, because they are 
equally efficient and necessary to the production of new values. 

Labor, whether of handicraft, skill, or superintendence, is, also, 
40 



WEALTH — LAWS OF GROWTH. 41 

capital; but it is usually treated rather as the associate than as a 
component of capital. , 

The production of wealth employs all these agencies, and covers 
all the faculties and forces, moral, intellectual, and material, which 
it can in any way enlist in the service; and it is a finer, as well as 
a more practical apprehension, to regard wealth in a higher and 
wider light than the mere aggregate of the substantive things in 
which it embodies itself to the senses and are exchanged in market. 
Taken as the means and measure of man's power over nature, it em- 
braces all the elements of capital, and opens up to the light of its 
true meaning. It cannot be restricted to the things exchangeable in 
trade. Y/hoever would understand it must follow it as it rises 
through material things, and all their service to the life of man, and 
stores its highest products in his heart and mind. Capital and 
Labor, with the intelligence that directs, and the aims which warrant 
and sanctify the ends, are tributaries to all the designs of our tem- 
poral existence. In such service they are worthy of higher con- 
sideration and better uses than we ever give them. 

The appointed dominion of man over earth and air and ocean, means 
nothing more, nothing less, than temporal wealth raised in its uses 
into human welfare. The mastery of nature grows with every 
victory. Every new discovery in the constitution of the material 
things which surround us, gives us a new force to control them. It 
is power put at compound interest; each new product added to the 
principal to yield a larger interest ; in consonance with that ever- 
enhancing power of the spirit to which it ministers in sublunary 
things. 

This apprehension of wealth shakes the mind free from the clogs 
of market-house logic, and reflects the highest lights upon the laws 
which rule it in all its functions. 

But the service of the elements requires of us their administra- 
tion under natural law. Nature bestows none of her best benefits 
upon indolence or ignorance. The tribes that content themselves 
with plundering her lakes and rivers, her forests and prairies, find 
her austere, repugnant and niggard to their necessities. To partial 
and poor cultivators, she turns poor in exact correspondence — to those 
that have shall be given. 

Disordered and misgoverned societies have, until very recently, 
and still in the majority of instances, afibrded the data from which 
4 



42 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

the standard authorities constructed their theories. These writers 
looking only to production, distribution and consumption of commodi- 
ties in past history, and reasoning not from the intrinsic capabilities 
of men and things in the better order to which they are rapidly 
advancing, but from the data of an imperfect experience, have 
invented systems dreadfully discordant with divine beneficence and 
with human hope. Their doctrines, under correction of later and 
more promising facts, are now less confidently paraded; indeed, 
they are rather assumed than asserted as demonstrable truths, but 
like original sin, they break out into actual transgression upon every 
tempting occasion. 

Mr. Malthus digested what he took to be the evidence afforded 
by history into a doctrine of despair, and his formulse have been 
taken for aphorisms of science by all his English successors and 
American disciples. So f\ir from believing in the constant growth 
of man's power over nature, he afiirmed a constantly-increasing 
disproportion of sustenance to population — that, under the laws 
which govern the subjects, population tends to increase in a geomet- 
rical, while the means of subsistence relatively fall off to an arith- 
metical ratio. In figures he puts it, that population unchecked 
would in two centuries increase one hundred and twenty-eight 
times, while food under no circumstances can increase more than 
eight times in the same period ; or, if it were possible to produce at 
once on the earth such a multitude, it could not afford them the 
one-sixteenth part of the food which they would require. The 
corrective checks, " war, pestilence, and famine," Mr. Malthus 
believes to have been necessarily provided to prevent such a whole- 
sale catastrophe ; and, that their operation is distributed by retail all 
along the life of the race, by way of correcting this mal-adjustment 
in the highest sphere of creation, which strangely enough occurs 
nowhere else in the Maker's works ! 

Mr. Malthus mistook facts logically possible only in circumstances 
wholly impossible, for laws arising out of the nature of things. 
He made the great blunder of taking the existing fertility of the 
human race, designed to repair the terrible waste of life during the 
ages of disorder, for a natural rate of reproduction, which he 
furthermore mistook for an inflexible measure. Upon data so 
shabbily stupid he used the inductive method of reasoning, and 
called the horrid result philosophy ! It never occurred to him to 



WEALTH — LAWS OF GROWTH. 43 

look for providential adjustments of natural laws to varied condi- 
tions of tlieir subjects, wliicla must prevent the processes of the 
creation from destroying tlieir own aims. 

As a theory, relating to the earth's fitness for that highest use 
to which all other uses are tributary, this doctrine might be dis- 
missed as an insanity of pretended science; but something of its 
mischief may be traced in popular reasoning founded upon hasty 
observation, and is, therefore, entitled to fuller consideration. 

We live in a new country, where population does not press upon 
the means of subsistence ; where famines never come, and where 
pauperism is an exotic. Within our boundaries there is yet a wilder- 
ness of fertility which tempts emigration even from its eastern 
regions, as yet not half occupied or cultivated, with still easier 
offers of livelihood, and better chances for rapid and great advance- 
ment of fortune 3 where labor is nearly the only form of productive 
power, and other capital is too scarce to monopolize the opportunity 
of acquiring wealth. From across the ocean a steady tide of hopeful 
poverty is constantly flowing from amid its mountain steeps of wealth 
toward our plain of better averaged competency. Under these in- 
fluences it is easy to conclude, and as easy to excuse the conclusion, 
that there is something in the law of growth in human society 
unfriendly to its masses, and unduly favorable to the advanced class, 
of wealth and condition, and that this disparity results from the 
established order of things. But facts may be accidents, and results 
do not always indicate constitutional or permanent laws. And, not- 
withstanding the illusions which hang like a fog over real facts, the 
truth is not left without a witness in any quarter of the globe, for 
wherever in any country there is substantial progress, that is, where- 
ever the true order of things is in any measure observed, in the 
same measure subsistence supports population and tends always to 
outgrow it. 

Even in England itself, all the facts of experience are in direct 
refutation of the dismal science, yet we find such authorities as 
J. E. McCulloch, the popular economist and statistician of Eng- 
land, any time within the last twenty years, declaring that " sixty 
years is the shortest time in which capital in an old and densely- 
peopled country can be expected to be doubled," while it is in 
proof that population has doubled in England and Wales in the 
fifty years between 1801 and 1851. 



44 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

Ricardo, whose work is tlie koran of this sect of economists, 
holds that the progress of cultivation by a fixed necessity, begins 
with the best lands first, and descends by a regular gradation to 
poorer still and poorer, until absolute sterility is reached, and gen- 
eral starvation would be the catastrophe, but that it is distributed 
all along the course of exhaustion, and thus keeps hungry mouths 
and recurring harvests in some sort of balance. Ricardo wrote so 
lately as in 1817, and McCulloch repeats him in effect, saying that 
"from the operation of fixed and permanent causes, the increasing 
sterility of soil is sure, in the long run, to overmatch the improve- 
ments that occur in agriculture and machinery," McCulloch wrote 
until 1863 without recanting. So the ghost of Malthus, who died 
in 1824, still haunts the highways of economic science. 

But la?t, and therefore worst of all, John Stuart Mill, claimed to 
be the philosopher of philanthropy, in his chapter on " The Law of 
the Increase of Production from Land," published in the year of 
grace, 1865, reproduces these horrors in all their hideousness. The 
over-population theory of Malthus, and the constantly-declining 
productiveness of land of Ricardo, are reproduced with such a 
simple confidence of their truth as dispenses with any attempt at 
their demonstration. 

He thinks that emigration — such as the potato-rot, the lack of 
remunerative labor, and the evictions of the small tenants in Ire- 
land, compel, and the fresh soils of Australia and the wilds of North 
America invite, may occasionally check the progress and mitigate 
the effects of this frightful disproportion between man and food. 
The present pressure, he suggests, might be temporarily postponed 
by the substitution of American maize for the deficient vegetables 
of Europe, as a brief reprieve of the old world; but then, such 
fullness of supply would mischievously increase the growth of popu- 
lation, and soon overlap the increased supply of subsistence again, 
and the checks, preventive and corrective, of Malthus' invention be 
again demanded in all their vigor. 

So present and pressing are the alarms of his theory to him, that 
he believes the emigration from the Atlantic to the Western States 
of America " is what enables population to go on unchecked in the 
Union without having yet diminished the returns to industry or 
increased the difficulty of earning a subsistence ;" but he has no 
hope that emigration at even its greatest height ''■ could be kept up 



WEALTH — LAWS OF GROWTH. 45 

sufficieDtly to take off all that portion of the annual increase, -which, 
being in excess of the progress made during the same period in the 
arts of life, tends to render living more difficult for every averagely- 
situated individual in the community ; " and again, in the United 
States, as elsewhere and everywhere in this wretchedly ordered 
world, comes in the hopeless preventive check of prudence in 
marriage, with the three reliable corrective ones in leash — War, 
Pestilence and Famine. Mr. Mill says of this gorgon law, " it is 
the most important proposition in political economy; " meaning his 
theory of it; and "were the law different, nearly all the phenomena 
of the production and distribution of wealth would be different." 
We may be allowed to be glad of this admission ; for if the founda- 
tion of the entire system of this school of economists can be shown 
to be utterly false in facts and as false in its inferences, the whole 
fabric raised upon it tumbles into rubbish. 

Our appeal from theory to facts, may be safely rested upon such 
as we here submit, which though necessarily limited in instances, 
are so selected as to be entirely conclusive. 

Joseph Lowe calculated the value of the real and personal prop- 
erty of Great Britain and Ireland, in A. D. 1793, at seven thousand 
one hundred and thirty-two millions of dollars ($7,132,000,000) 
and the population at fourteen millions five hundred thousand 
(14,500,000), which gives an average of four hundred and ninety- 
one dollars to each person ($491.86). 

Leoni Levi, for the year 1858, puts the value of the property at 
twenty-nine thousand one hundred and seventy-eight millions of 
dollars ($29,178,000,000), making an average of one thousand and 
six dollars per head ($1,006). Here then the accepted authorities 
give us an exact doubling of the population in all the British 
Islands in Europe in sixty-five years, with a four-fold increase of 
property, and a doubling of the average share of each individual in 
the same time, and Mr. Mill's " averagely-situated" individual, even 
in Great Britain and Ireland, did not find it more difficult to secure 
a living in this long period, but in fact had his average share of the 
total property of the United Kingdom doubled. 

But the rate of increase in the general wealth was not uniform, 
and so far was it from diminishing that it increased rapidly year by 
year from the earliest date to that of the latest authoritative reports. 
According to them the average increase of the whole period from 



46 QUESTIONS OP THE DAY. 

1793' to 1858 required thirty-two and a half yeai's for doubling 
itself, but the most reliable estimates for fourteen years preceding 
1866, give an increase at the rate of doubling in the greatly shorter 
period of a fraction less than nineteen years in the kingdom of Great 
Britain, Ireland excluded. Mr. Gladstone in his speech upon the 
Reform bill in 1866 infers, from the increase of the income tax 
during the next preceding fourteen years, that the wealth of the 
kingdom of Great Britain, including Wales and Scotland, amounted to 
sixty-five per cent, or at the compound rate of three and three quar- 
ters per cent per annum — doubling in nineteen years, as already 
said ; the population at the same time increasing a fraction over one 
and a half per cent per annum, or doubling in fifty years. 

England takes a decennial census of its population^ but does not 
estimate the value of the real and personal property of the kingdom 
by assessment or appraisement, as is done in the United States. 
The estimates of its statisticians, however, are probably as near the 
truth as the census valuations of the marshals under the last-named 
system. They have the rental, the income tax, the sworn value of 
decedent's estates, bank, fire and marine insurance and other cor- 
poration reports, the excises, and the imports and exports of the 
kingdom, for their data, and all these are oflacial, and as nearly 
accurate as might be attained by any other means. 

Mr. Gladstone's inference from the income tax is probably a little 
too high for the general average growth of wealth. The national 
funds are not expected to yield more than three and one-quarter per 
cent upon the investment, which, on account of their absolute secu- 
rity, is a little too low for a basis. Investments in lands, subject to 
income tax and other abatements, at four per cent, and in railroads, 
canals, houses, and other real property, still more burdened by risks, 
repairs, and charges, four and one-half per cent. When these rates are 
considered, about three and one-half per cent per annum may be 
safely taken for the average increase of wealth, which is a doubling,, 
in the last decennial period, once in twenty years, or two and a half 
times faster than the present rate of the population. 

England surely may be taken to be one of Mr. McCulloch's "old 
and densely-peopled countries" which he said could not double its 
wealth in less than sixty years; but we find that she has increased 
forty-one per cent in the ten years from 1856 to 186G, which 
promises a doubling in twenty years. This is at twice the rate of 



WEALTH — LAWS OP GROWTH. 47 

its growth between the years 1840 and 1850, which is explained by 
the advantage of the later period from the influx of California 
apd Australian gold, the regularly enhancing wealth of all her ' 
customers, the improvement of machinery, and, by the additional 
good fortune that escaped the general scarcity in Europe and the 
famine of 1847 in Ireland. 

The result of this inquiry may be thus presented : Wealth grows 
now in Grreat Britain at the rate of forty-one per cent in ten years j 
population, eleven and one-third per cent. The average of the 
total values of the property of the Kingdom were to each person : 

In the year 1851 $ 827 

" ■■' 1861 1,074 

" " 1866 1,239 

being an increase of fifty per cent in fifteen years, and a doubling 
of the average distributive share of each individual in twenty-five 
and one-half years. 

This is the answer that the statistical history of one old country, 
pretty densely peopled, and with a population increasing at a me- 
dium rate, gives to the Ricardo-Mill theory of political economy, 
which rests all its systematic doctrines on the fundamental proposi- 
tion that sustenance and supplies are ever becoming less and less 
adequate to the demands of human life. 

Let ns now glance at the condition of a nation as old, nearly as 
densely peopled, but with a population almost stationary: — 

France in 1836 had thirty -three and a half millions of people; 
in 1856, thirty-six millions. Increase in twenty years only four 
and three-quarters per cent, or one-quarter per cent per annum. 
Her aggregate domestic exports for the ten years from 1826 to 1836 
were valued at five thousand two hundred and fifteen millions of 
francs (5,215,000,000f ) ; for the ten years from 1846 to 1856, at 
twelve thousand and forty-five millions (12,045,000,000f). In- 
crease in twenty years one hundred and thirty-one per cent in the 
same time that her population was increasing but four and three- 
quarters per cent. 

Measuring the growth of wealth in France by the growth in 
England, relatively to their foreign commerce, we find that in the 
same twenty years England and Ireland increased their domestic 
exports just one hundred and twenty per cent,'Or eleven per cent 
less than Dhe increase in France. Therefore, by this standard 



48 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

France was increasing in wealtli at a slightly faster rate than Eng- 
land, previous to the year 1856. But the gains of France upon 
the exports of her products are much larger than those of England. 
Not more than one-fifth of their value is in the foreign material of 
which they are fabricated. The four-fifths at least being her own 
raw material and food converted into the commodities, while Eng- 
land's exports of manufactures have one-half of the value of her 
total domestic exports in her imports of raw sugar, flax, cotton, 
hides, hemp, silk, wool, and dyestufi's ; to say nothing of the bread- 
stuffs and provisions, and the hundred other articles for which she 
depends on foreign countries. 

For these and other reasons the annual profits of industry in 
France are considerably greater than in England, that is, more than 
three and one-half per cent, while her increase of people is almost 
nothing — one-fourth of one per cent. 

With regard to her production of food, the progress has been 
marvelous : In 1820 the yield of wheat was one hundred and fifty- 
three millions of bushels — a pro rata of five and four-tenths bushels 
per head; in 1857 it had risen to three hundred and thirteen 
millions (Dictionaire Universal, du Commerce tome i, p. 1381:), 
affording eight and six-tenths bushels to each individual. This is 
three and one-half bushels per head more than the people of the 
United States consume, leaving one hundred and thirty-three mil- 
lions of bushels for exportation. Her beet-root sugar in 1861 
amounted to six and one-quarter pounds per head. (We raised 
eleven pounds of cane and maple sugar.) Her product of potatoes 
was two hundred and eighty millions of bushels. The United 
States, with a population equal to five-sixths of hers, produced but 
one hundred and fifty-two millions, or a little more than half the 
per capita allowance of the French. 

The total agricultural production of France has doubled in the 
last thirty years, while at her present rate of increase it will take 
two hundred and seventy-seven years to double her population. 
With a density of one hundred and seventy-nine persons to the 
square mile, or two and three-quarter times that of Pennsylvania 
(sixty-five), she feeds all her people and has food to spare. The 
whole of the New England and Middle States of the United States 
in 1860 had but sixty-four persons to the square mile, and when 
the population of the entire Union shall number one h^indred mil- 



WEALTH — LAWS OP GROWTH. 49 

lious tliere will be but sixty-eight, or they will have a density of 
but three-eighths (thirty-eight per cent) of that of France; it is 
now but one-eighth. 

Population is certainly not pressing upon sustenance in France, 
nor threatening to do so. We speak not now of its distribution, 
but of the abundant and constantly increasing abundance of pro- 
vision for the support of the nation. 

Having seen how much faster wealth increases than population in 
the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the density being the great- 
est in Europe, except in the little Kingdom of Belgium, and the 
increase of population at nearly the highest rate known in Europe ; 
and, having also seen how the wealth of France grows at a propor- 
tionately faster rate upon a population nearly stationary and of 
medium density,* we now turn to the like statistics of the United 
States, where the movement in numbers and wealth are both on a 
grander scale than in any of the countries of Europe. 

The capital value of real and personal property, excluding that 
in the slaves, according to the census valuation, increased in the 
decade 1850-60, one hundred and twenty-six per cent, and the 
population thirty-five and five-teuths per cent; or the capital 
wealth grew at the rate of eight and one-half per cent, and the 
population a fraction above three per cent per annum. The former 
doubling in eight and a half years, and the latter in twenty-three 
and a half years. The average share of each individual in 1850 
standing at two hundred and sixty-six dollars, and rising in 1860 
to four hundred and forty-nine dollars, being an increase in these 
ten years of sixty-nine per cent upon the pro rata share of each 
individual. 

But, everywhere it is the annual j^roduce that measures the pro- 
vision for the wants of men, and for their growth in numbers, and 
improvement of their condition. Especially in the United States, 
where the prospective value of real estate is always in advance of its 
present yield of profits, because it is always as certain as that already 
reached, the capital increases considerably faster than its current 
productiveness, the product must be taken^ if we would ascertain 
its relation to the demand for subsistence. Much of the estimated 

•■■In 1865 England and Wales had three hundred and sixty to the square mile; 
Scotland, ninety-eight ; United Kingdom, two hundred and sixty-seven; Ireland, 
in 1861, one hundred and eighty-two. 



50 QUESTIONS or THE DAY. 

value of fixed property here lies in expectation ; it is, therefore, the 
product which land and other capital is made to yield that measures 
the nation's actual wealth. The same is true of that greatest source 
of wealth — labor-power. All the agents, natural and artificial, that 
may be used in production, depend for their effects upon the man- 
ner and measure of their employment. Land, ksbor, water and wind 
power, money, and credit in all its forms, are in the same category. 
Therefore, products, rather than capital, are the data for all calcula- 
tions in this matter of wealth and of its service in the support and 
development of life. 

Our decennial census reports do not nearly cover the annual pro- 
ducts of capital and industry. For instance, they take a very 
inadequate account of the current consumption of their own crops 
by our agriculturists, their families, and employees. In 1840 this 
class amounted to three-fourths of the total population, and ap- 
proached the same proportion in 1850 ; nor, are any manufacturing 
or mechanical products of the year returned where the annual value 
falls below five hundred dollars. Besides all this — which probably 
amounts to one-fourth of the actual production of the country — no 
account is taken of the labor employed in clearing new and im- 
proving old lands, in building railroads, canals, houses, factories, 
steamships, and other vessels ; nor, of the labor employed in opening 
and working mines, ill the fine arts, and a large portion of the useful 
arts. All of which omissions may be safely stated at one-third of 
the value of the products of agriculture and manufactures, me- 
chanics and the arts, noticed by the census-takers. Some of these 
contributions to the subsistence and enjoyment of the people — 
those which continue their service during the period — appear in 
the valuation of the fixed and accumulated property at the recur- 
ring census appraisements, but in the aggregate, very far below 
their value in current use. 

That the census accounts of the annual product are very far below 
the truth is apparent from the fact that they allow but $62.28 for 
the share of each person in 1840; $64.00 in 1850; and $86.31 in 
I860.* This is not enough for the consumption in 1860. by $14.00 

* Agricultural products ninety ])er cent increase upon value of 1850, $1,818,- 
156,816 : manufacturing, mining, mechanic arts, eighty-seven dnd a half per cent 
upon half the value of 1850 (half allowed for raw material), gives $857,671,664, 
total $2,675,828,480 -^31,000,000 = $86.."1 per cap. 



WEALTH — LAWS OP GROWTH. 51 

per capita, or nearly $450,000,000 in the aggregate; besides, the vast 
sum of $8,000^000,000 of increased capital value in the decade is 
to be accounted for, which, if we allow even ten per cent for specu- 
lative valuation above that of 1850, would leave a deficiency of one 
thousand two hundred and twenty millions, or $40 per capita, which 
must have resulted from actual production, and this addition to the 
sum allowed by the census would amount to $126,* average yield of 
the labor capital and enterprise of each person, which is surely little 
enough. 

But our inquiry does not demand actual but comparative values 
at the several periods which we take for the purpose of estimating 
the proportion of wealth produced for the supply of the national 
consumption and accumulation. The errors and defects of one 
census are about equivalent to those of the others, and so we have 
the ratio of provision to the number of the inhabitants, and this is 
all that we want for our present purpose. 

The increase of the products of capital and industry in the year 
1860 over those of 1850 are well ascertained to have been : — 

In the Mining, Manufacturing, and Mechanic Arts... 87i per cent. 

" Agriculture 90 " 

" Agricultural Implements 63 " 

" Books, Newspapers, and Job-printing 250 " 

« Coal 170 

" Wheat 71 " 

" Indian Corn 42 « 

" Potatoes 68 " 

« Livestock 100 " 

" Number of Horned Cattle 40 " 

" Horses and Mules 48 " 

" Sheep and Swine 9 " 

" Ginned Cotton 112 " 

" Tobacco 115 " 

We have no hesitation in fixing the actual increase of the pro- 
ducts of 1860 over those of 1850 at one hu.ndred per cent. This 

* We reach this result in another way — the population in 1850 was twenty- 
three millions, in 1860, thirty-one millions — mean number twenty-seven millions. 
Their consumption in ten years at $100 a head makes twenty-seven thousand 
millions. Putting the products of industry at $126 a head per annum, we get 
the sum of thirty-four hundred millions, which gives an accumulation by labor 
and capital employed of seven thousand millions. The census of 1860 states the 
increased value at eight thousand millions, and we allow this one thousand mil- 
lions of difference for speculation beyond the actual value of property. 



62 - QUESTIONS or THE DAY. 

would increase the ^kv capita share of the people to forty-seven and 
a half per cent in ten years, or to forty per cent, if only ninety per 
cent be taken for the additional product. 

Let us now restate our results in tabular form. 

Increase of population, production, and, increase pro rata per 
capita in the decade 1850 to 1860. 

Of PcDuIation Of Annual Of Share of Annual Products 

^ ■ Products. ptr capita. 

United States 35.5 per cent 100 per cent 47i per cent. 

France 2.6 " 44 " 40 " 

Great Britain 11.3 " 41 " 26J " 

Among the most striking results of an extended examination of 
the growth of wealth in Great Britain and the United States, we 
find the fact that it was just twice as great in the decade of 1850-GO, 
in both countries, as in that next preceding it, 1840-50. The pre- 
vious decades of the present century were either disturbed by 
expensive wars, or by great commercial convulsions, which greatly 
afi"ect the data that they present for estimating the normal progress 
of industry and trade; the two last-mentioned periods were but little 
aflfected by any injurious events in the business affairs of either; or, 
relatively to their respective resources, they were about equally 
exposed to them, and they both had the advantage in a relatively 
equal degree of all that contributed to immensely enhance the pros- 
perity of the period 1850-60. That they should both double their 
decennial advance in wealth in the last of these periods as against the 
previous one, under conditions so similar, goes a great way to indi- 
cate a law of progress very uniform in its operation, and as that law 
is found to operate so favorably for the welfare of both, the mani- 
festation is clearly and conclusively in favor of our proposition which 
may be thus stated : — In a good order of human societies — in the 
present' state of civilization — the natural provision for the suste- 
nance of the people is abundant and growing more and more so with 
whatever increase of numbers that can occur ; the power of men 
over nature growing ever more complete in the increasing skill 
applied to production. 



CHAPTER VI. 

SOURCES OF ADVANCEMENT IN WEALTH. 

Sources of advancement in wealth. — Seven general sources. — Nature's resist- 
ance. — The «M/)er-natural in the " Mechanical powers." — Measure of steam 
force in equivalents of man-power. Employed in England equal to the labor- 
power of one-quarter of the inhabitants of the Globe. — Europe and America 
supplement their human, by six times its force, in steam labor-power.— This 
power doubled again by machinery, and constantly enhancing, beyond com- 
putation. — Velocity gained equals the force thus commanded.— The mastery 
obtained over masses of matter. — -Greater still over elements and atoms. — Prac- 
tical application follows closely upon our discoveries in the laws of matter. — 
Abundance and cheapness of production supply an ample stock of provisions 
for the wants of men. — Effects of the growth of wealth on the products of 
handicraft in dead matter. — Advancement in agricultural production. — In- 
crease in everything except food, unlimited. — Consumption of food like its 
possibilities of supply, limited. — The despair of the " Dismal" School. — General 
answer. — Famines and plagues disappear in the ratio that men increase in 
number. — Irish and Indian famines of the present centuries accounted for. — 
Exclusively agricultural countries alone exposed to starvation, — Why. — The t 
provision for food products adequate, and therefore practically unlimited. — 
Not ten per cent of the soil's capabilities yet mastered. — Human destitution no 
impeachment of the providence and liberality of nature's provision for human 
wants. — The laws of nature tend to adjustment of man and earth. — Due culti- 
vation does not exhaust, but increases the soil's fertility. — Contributions of 
foreign commerce to subsistence. — England draws four-fifths, in value, of the 
raw material of her exported products from foreign countries. — Legitimate 
foreign trade insures the needed supplies of the oldest countries. — Relief 
from emigration. — Space in the new answers to needs in the old world. — 
Room enough still in Europe. — Abundance in reserve for seven times the 
present population of the globe. — Economists, handicraftsmen, and horses 
getting over their scare at the prospective destitution. — Compensations in re- 
serve when customary reliances fail. — Substitution of the abundant and cheap 
for the scarce and dear. — Civilization finds the means of human subsistence 
ever more and more abundant and accessible. — Sparseness of savage popula- 
tions and failure of their supplies. — Diversified industry a sure defense against 
famine. — In progressive communities vegetable supplants animal food. — Pro- 
portion of their respective yield. — Economy of a vegetable diet among ani- 
mals. — Progress from the animal, through, the vegetable to the mineral king- 
dom, in the supplies of advancing civilization. — The Laborers' opportunity 
grows pari passu through all this progress. — Last of all man advances to the 

63 



54 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

command of the imponderables. — Instances of the substitutions which mark 
human progress, and provide for it. — The Industrial liberty of nations, like 
the emancipation of men from the despotism of the elements, comes from, and 
is proportioned to, their control over nature's forces. — Industrial and political 
revolutions have their roots in the bosom of mother earth. 

The sources of advancement in wealtli are, in general statement : 
1st. Increase of labor-saving machinery ; 2d. Substitution of arti- 
ficial for natural labor; 3d. Improvement in the quantity and 
quality of commodities; 4th. Advancement in agricultural produc- 
tion ; 5th. Improvement in transportation ; 6th. Extension of for- 
eign trade; 7th. Substitution of the cheap and abundant for the 
costly and scarce. 

In some of these things the achievements of human art, and 
the prospective improvements well assured, have converted the 
fictions of magic, of our old story-books, into the facts of every-day 
experience. The magic carpet and Aladdin's lamp seem now but a 
prophesy of the wonders which science and art are accomplishing 
for us. 

In the conversion and transportation of the materials which serve 
our needs, and which must undergo changes of form and place 
before they are utilized, the forces of nature stand in resistance to 
those of man. The earths and minerals which compose the solid 
•globe, serve men no further or better than they do the inferior 
animals until they are transformed and subdued into use, and their 
resistance to change of place is overcome. Their unserviceable 
forms and properties in the natural state, and their fixity of local 
position, call for force and speed to establish our dominion over them. 
Something akin to the miraculous, something si<pe?--natural, must be 
arrayed against this natural to bring it into obedience. In the 
" mechanical powers " we have it in the screw, the compound 
pulley, and the wheel and axle. Nowhere in nature are either of 
these found. Nature has the lever and the inclined plane, with the 
force of gravitation, and that modification of it which is called cohe- 
sion, but these only in common with man and his instruments, 
which in a thousand instances serve as successful antagonists to the 
like forces of dead matter. Where the artificial lever is inadequate, 
the screw and the pulley win an easy victory ; and with the wheel 
and axle, men out-run the bird on the wing, and out-swim the fi§h 
in the seas, carrying mountain-weights with a rapidity that over- 



WEALTH — SOURCES OP GROWTH. 55 

<3omes all that is substantial in tlie resistance of Space ; while Time 
in travel and transportation, for all the purposes of communication, 
is eflfectively subdued by the apparatus of the electric telegraph and 
the force of steam and machinery. In respect to force — the force 
of nian against that of nature — there can be no lack when four tons 
of coal in a steam engine will evolve as much mechanical power as 
an ordinary man can exert, working eight hours a day, for twenty 
years, or, one ton of coal has in it a fifteen hundred man-power for 
their work of one day. 

Great Britain raised from her mines, in the year 1864, ninety-two 
millions of tons; she exported to foreign countries but nine millions, 
and if she employed but forty of the remaining eighty-three millions 
in producing artificial labor-power, she got out of it the equivalent 
of two hundred millions of men's work in the year. Two years 
afterwards, in 1866, she mined one hundred and one thousand tons 
of coal, and if she used fifty thousand tons of this quantity in the 
same way, then she derived from it the labor-force of two hundred 
and fifty millions of able-bodied men, which, by the ordinary com- 
putation, is about equal to that of all the inhabitants of the globe. 
This, for an island numbering twenty-five millions of people, all 
told, is a stupendous force. And when we add to it two-thirds of 
this quantity, similarly used in the rest of Europe and the United 
States, we have an aggregate population of about two hundred and * 
eighty millions, less than one-half of whom are in the producing 
class, between fifteen and sixty years of age, and the one-half of , 
these only are males. So that considerably under seventy millions 
of men's labor is supplemented by an artificial force derived from 
coal, equal to that of about four hundred and ten millions of man- 
power, or, the mass of laborers in Europe and the United States 
had the help of six times their power added to their own in doing 
their allotted work. That is, they, with the aid of the steam-power 
of coal, were doing nearly twice the work that the whole population 
of the earth could do without it. Nor would it be too much to say 
that this force was again doubled by the intervention of machinery 
in steam works, and in its employment where water is the agent, 
and where human force is multiplied in efi"ect through the instru- 
mentality of the mechanical powers, as they are technically called. 
Indeed, estimates and computation fail to grasp the efiective value of 
the adjuvants that human ingenuity employs to enhance its mastery 



56 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

of matter. And as a source of wealth to the civilized world, it will 
be felt that this compelling power over inanimate things is in a 
constant and rapid state of enhancement, growing day by day, until 
it outstrips the limits of calculation, and the mind no longer defi- 
nitely comprehends the ever-swelling magnitude, just as it fails to 
comprehend the indefinite ever advancing toward the infinite. 

The amount of mechanical force thus growing into the unlimited, 
in weight, is matched by the velocity of motion gained, which, while 
still computable, is scarcely conceivable in shuttles, hammers, rollers 
and wheels. Steam and machinery give us many hundred-fold 
rapidity in printing, spinning, and weaving over the old hand-press, 
wheel, and loom.* In transportation of men and commodities they 
have afforded us fifteen miles on the ocean, and fifty on land, to the 
hour; overcoming the resistance of wind and wave on the one, and 
the greatest mountain masses on the other. Some idea of this ser- 
vice is given in the railroad reports of England. In 1866 her 
trains on less than half (thirteen thousand two hundred and eighty- 
nine miles) the length of track in the United States transported a 
number of passengers equal to one quarter (two hundred and fifty- 
two millions) of the population of the globe, and carried one hun- 
dred and forty millions of tons weight of men and things, one 
hundred and thirty-four millions of miles — a distance equal to that 
from the earth to the sun, and half way back again. 

These are but hints of the command we are to have over matter 
in ma%$es^ and over time and space, in the work of conversion and 
transportation. 

Over its elements and atoms mind is achieving control still 
greater and more wonderful. The incantations of chemistry set 
free the hidden forces and agencies of the creation, and rehearse 
the miracles of incessant new creations, changing the forms and uses 
of all material things, and informing them with life and action in 
the service of the living world. The solid rocks, the winds, the 
waters, the latent fires of the great store-house of forces provided 

■•■■ The iacreased economy and power obtained in the application of some kinds 
of machinery will be apparent from the following statement, the result of accurate 
calculation : Richard Garsed, Esq., of Frankford, Pennsylvania, manufactures, in 
every day of ten hours, thirty-three thousand miles of cotton thread — obtaining 
from seven tons of coal the necessary power. Supposing it possible for such 
quality of thread to be made by hand, it would require the labor of seventy 
thousand women to accomplish this work, 



WEALTH — SOURCES OE GROWTH. 57 

for our service, are compelled to take all shapes of use at the bid- 
ding of the spirit which masters their mysteries; and, what is most 
remarkable in the present age, and most promising for the oncoming 
generations, is the practical application which follows closely upon 
the heels of discovery. Franklin (in 1752) put his electric toy to 
duty in guarding our habitations from the thunder-bolt; and Morse 
(in 1832), before a generation had past after the discovery of gal- 
vanism (Gralvani, 1791, Volta, 1801,) subdued this subtlest of 
nature's agents to service in the electric telegraph ; and now, in less 
than thirty-six years more, it has triumphed over the last impedi- 
ments which the oceans interposed to the instant communication of 
the whole earth. 

Handicraft, which in the last hundred years has kept close com- 
pany with the rapidest revelations of science fulfills its commission, 
"fixing firm in enduring forms the creative essence which lives and 
works through all time, and hovers in changeful seeming till made 
firm by enduring thought." (Goethe, prolog. Faust.) Material 
forces, under the direction of machinery, grow as light-limbed and 
strong-handed as the thought which they realize. Machinery be- 
comes bone and muscle to the brain and nerve of science, and dead 
matter answers in all its aptitudes to the mind of man. 

From the union of knowledge with practical genius, physical 
power has made such progress, and trained so many, and such 
stupendous natural forces into our service, and all this so re- 
cently and rapidly, that we still look forward to a yet further and 
vaster increase in the' apparatus of production, and to a correspond- 
ing abundance and cheapness; and through that abundance and 
cheapness to an ever-broadening diffusion of benefits and blessings. 

This is what best describes and defines the increase of the general 
or aggregate wealth : Men ever better and better provided with the 
commodities which sustain their animal life; with the luxuries, 
which refine it ; with an ever enlarging release from drudgery, 
which liberates it, and, with the opportunities and inducements, 
thence resulting, for elevating it to its noblest uses and highest 
possibilities. 

ADVANCEMENT IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION. 

Agriculture differs from manufactures in not being capable of 
absolutely indefinite expansion. This is true in the literal mean- 
5 



58 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

ing of the words; but writers of the dlsm:il school give the truism 
much more force in application than it is entitled to. The 
multiplication in quantity, and improvement in quality, of all 
things, except food, which is clearly possible, is by an allowable 
hyperbole unlimited. Busy as a nailer, was once a proverb, be- 
cause he must hammer out a nail at a single heat, and had not a 
moment to spare, but now a boy may be seen making more than 
fifty in a minute, while at leisure to read a book held in his unoccu- 
pied hand. A hundred years ago England consumed one yard of 
muslin per head per annum, but before our great domestic conflict 
it was plenty enough and cheap enough there for the inhabitants 
to consume an average of thirty yards ; and so of a multitude 
of other commodities which a better state of things in the new 
age has made necessaries of life. But food, unless it be of fish, is 
much more limited in supply and accessibility. Its production and 
consumption cannot be expanded in any tolerable approach to the 
possible of textile fabrics, or metals, in their infinitely various 
forms of use. This, however, must not be forgotten : though the 
number of consumers is the same, the quantity of food demanded, 
has vastly narrower limits. 

Population, we are told by the Malthus school of economists, 
goes on increasing, in favorable conditions, in a compound ratio, 
and the food -yield from the soil at best only by simple addition; 
and still worse, after a certain stage of culture is reached, all addi- 
tional product is at an increasing cost of labor and capital — the 
process of exhaustion all the while advancing — and these general 
abstract propositions are rigorously pressed into the service of unbe- 
lief in the harmonies of the things which most nearly concern the 
welfare of men. 

As a general answer, it is to be noticed that, in point of fact, 
and directly to the point of this assertion, famines, and the plagues 
attendant on them, have disappeared in modern times and under 
modern civilization, in the direct proportion that population has in- 
creased. Particular and comparatively small districts sometimes 
sufier now, but these are always the grossly-misgoverned or bar- 
barously-cultivated portions of the civilized world. No famine or 
resulting plague, and no instances of very great scarcity, have 
visited Europe within the present century; but in increasing num- 
bers and severity, as we go back towards the earliest ages of Chris- 



1 



WEALTH — SOURCES OF GROWTH. 59 

tianity, they crowd the chronological registers of important events 
in human history. In Ireland, indeed, with fifteen millions of 
arable acres, and tea millions of that in pasture, the mass of the 
population, confined for food to a single root, which, under the 
pressure of necessity, is stimulated into disease, while the flocks 
and herds go to a distant market for the landlord's profit, famines 
and deficiencies in food are still lingering long ai'ter happier lands 
have found a nearly complete exemption. Ireland, under the con- 
ditions whicl} she still suffers, cannot be blamed with infertility, or 
fiiilure of ability to feed her people. India is still frequently visited 
by faniines, also; but, is it surprising, if the richest soil of the world 
fails to yield its harvests, when the rule of the foreigner, or what- 
ever else the cause, has restored the jungles of tropical luxuriance 
to the old garden grounds of the Deccan, and tiger hunts are the 
pastimes in spots which still retain the vestiges of demolished 
cities? Shall mother earth be made ashamed that she sickens and 
withers under such abuses ? 

In the northeast of Prussia we have lately heard of scarcity 
approaching absolute destitution ; but such instances as this, and 
others like it, occurring in districts surrounded by abundance, 
have this lesson to teach the teachers of Political Economy and 
the governors of states: famines now never occur except in regions 
exclusively devoted to the production of food ; and, that a duly 
diversified industry is an insurance against them. The crop of one 
year, however abundant, never suffices for itself and the next fol- 
lowing, and if that of the last greatly fails, starvation must follow, 
for all of the labor of the people fails of its returns, and they have 
no current products wherewith to purchase supplies. Nine hundred 
of every thousand people, in any country, must starve if a whole 
year's earnings are cut ofi". 

Let us admit the limited acreage of the fertile soil of the world ; 
let us admit even the temporary exhaustibility of the soil under 
destructive modes of cultivation, and, that the earth will not long 
bear the robber-system of harvesting its generous tribute ; and 
then, we turn to the despondents and reply : what, though neither 
land nor its products are in themselves unlimited, are they, there- 
fore, not under natural law sufficient, more than sufficient, and 
so, in reference to the demand, practically unlimited ? The thou- 
sand millions of its human inhabitants have not yet conquered 



60 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

ten per cent of the earth's capabilities for tlieir service, even if 
a fevF garden spots may have reached the limit of their strength; 
but what is more to the purpose : if the race is still brutal in its 
fecundity, resulting entirely from the domination of the animal over 
the moral and mental faculties, and is a nuisance among the fair 
and orderly works of creation, may she not reject them as she did 
the reptiles of the old geologic ages, without impeachment of her 
providence and liberality ? 

We are thinking of the laws, not of the abuses of human life 
and its dependencies ; and in those laws we see a constant efibrt in 
correction of those abuses, and an assured promise of an ultimate 
adjustment. But this still allows much evil and suffering in the 
present and immediate future ! Not a whit more suffering than 
sin ; and we cannot even imagine a system of existence in which 
wrong shall get along as well as right. To have men live well in 
error and evil is a gross violation of order and law, and would require 
that the system of the universe should be changed from the divinely 
right into conformity, if that were possible, with the rebellious evil 
which assails and defies it. 

It is well to speak strongly on this subject, for, whether any pres- 
ent good shall result or not, it is much to have a sound faith and 
confidence in the laws of Providence. If we have an eternity for 
thought and feeling before us, a sustaining hope will go along with 
the study, and there will be the good cheer of a better day coming, 
as the motive and the reward of benevolent endeavor. 

But we can rest our argument securely upon experience and 
observation, seen in the light which the ends and issues of all things 
reflect upon the processes by which they must be attained. 

In point of fact the productiveness of all the old countries which 
have any degree of prosperity is in a constant and rapid increase, 
far outstripping the demand for sustenance. They are growing 
rich upon their surplus. 

The food of France increased three times in the eighty years 
from 17G0 to 1840. In the period of 1820 to 1860 it doubled, 
that is, it is now increasing at the rate of four-fold in eighty years 
against three-fold in the earlier period named ; and this with a popu- 
lation nearly stationary and in an area of the same extent. iSliC is 
a very large exporter of food. Age has not lessened her i'oitility. 
Its tendency under a due system if cultivation is always in the 



WEALTH — SOURCES OF GROWTH. 61 

opposite direction. The Mediterranean wheat, which makes such 
a figure in commerce is grown on the oldest cultivated soil in Europe 
and Africa. 

English authors of authority claim that the usual crop of wheat 
in the United Kingdom is thirty bushels to the acre. The United 
States Agricultural Bureau puts our crops at from twelve to thir- 
teen bushels per acre. Here the oldest country considerably more 
than doubles the newest in its average yield. 

CONTRIBUTIONS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 

Improvement in the methods of cultivation^ and the resulting 
enhancement of the product of soils long under tillage in the older 
countries, are not the only means and sources of increasing and 
cheapening the necessary supplies of their people. The coloniza- 
tion of, and COMMERCE with new countries, and the contributions 
which they are made to yield, afford a grand increase of the means 
of subsistence to the participating communities. For instance, the 
exports of cottons from England grew at a two-fold rate in the 
decade ending in 1860 over that of 1840-50, constituting full 
three-eighths of the value of all her domestic exports in the year 
1860 (52 m. £ of 135.8 m. £), while her iron, steel, cutlery, and 
other manufactures of iron and steel, of which she had at home all 
the raw material and agents of conversion, amounted to no more 
than eleven and six-tenths per cent (15.9 m. £), or less than one- 
eighth of the whole. Her imports of raw material used in the manu- 
facture of cottons, silks, and woolens, that year (1860) were valued at 
forty-seven and a half millions pounds. Their export value reached 
seventy-five millions, which, with twenty million pounds' worth con- 
sumed at home, gave her quite two hundred and thirty-eight millions 
dollars of difference in the exchange. These three manufactures, 
founded upon foreign raw materials, gave employment to seven 
hundred thousand laborers, whose wages supported nearly three 
millions of her population, and yielded a profit of, say, fifteen mil- 
lions of pounds to her capitalists (sixteen per cent upon the value of 
the products). It is probable that the United Kingdom does not 
supply more than the one-fifth in value of the materials (exclusive 
of the labor) of her usual exports. If so, foreign commerce gives 
her four-fifths of the raw stock of her multifarious foreign exports. 



62 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

The United Kingdom lias risen from one and a half to six 
thousand millions of pounds in capital wealth since the United 
States sent the first cotton to her looms (in 1790), and, as has been 
already stated, this single article has risen to the value of three- 
eighths of the exports of British manufactures. 

All the older countries have in this species of commerce sources 
of industrial profit, and supplies of sustenance before them, for as 
long a period as philanthropy or patriotism need wish. Even 
when international exchanges shall be limited to trade in the unlike 
products of difi"eriDg climates, as it eventually must be, the reci- 
procities natural and, therefore, stable an(f enduring, will still be 
ample in their contributions to the welfare of all parties. 

While the social disorder and misgovernment of the nations of 
Western Europe continue to bear hardly upon the mass of the 
peoples, the colonization of new countries will, in an important de- 
gree, abate the evils of disproportion between men and their current 
means of support^ at present existing. For this purpose full four- 
fifths of the habitable globe is still new. Europe has now less 
than sixty-five persons to the square mile. This number does not 
task the one-third of its capabilities at home; and America, that 
has but three and a half, is capable of an average of at least two 
hundred. When these two quarters of the globe shall have their 
highest probable population in A. D. 1900, there will be ample 
room in them for nineteen times as many as they will have, or 
for seven times the total present population of the known world. 
Without calculating the waiting capabilities of Asia, Africa, and 
Oceanica for the multitudes which they can and will, in the advanc- 
ing order of the earth's occupation and use, entertain and sustain, 
there is in the vacancies of Europe and America ample room and 
verge enough for a future so extended, that we might as well under- 
take to forecast the arrangements of the millennium, as to concern 
ourselves with the provision for the existence of the men that 
shall come after the globe is avera^ely inhabited and tolerably well 
subdued to the dominion of man. 

Distressing apprehensions for the future of mankind are not 
new; but it is comparatively new for science to become hypochon- 
driacal. It must be because j^litical economy is itself so new that 
it breaks its heart over the foolish fears of infancy ; it has not yet 
cut its wisdom teeth. 



WEALTH — SOURCES OF GROWTH. 63 

In the memory of the present gen:ration, the general and rapidly 
increasing substitution of machinery and steam power for hand- 
labor, threatened the displacement and the starvation of the toiling 
multitudes, and good people stood aghast at the prospect when they 
saw one man doing the work of fifty. The laborers themselves 
looked upon the wonder-working machines, much as an untrained 
horse regards a locomotive engine, frightened by the apprehension 
that his " occupation's gone." The results, however, seem to be 
reconciling both man and beast. They have both improved greatly 
in quality and numbers, and they both in some vague way are be- 
ginning to understand the situation. In like manner^ our grand- 
mothers looked forward to dreadful things, before fossil coal came 
into use for fuel, for the time rapidly advancing when the forests 
sho^^ld be utterly exhausted. Even John Stuart Mill gave voice 
in parliament in the spring of 1866^ to a statistical scare over the 
near exhaustion of the English coal mines, and urged the early pay- 
ment of the British debt in anticipation of the utter bankruptcy of 
the nation ; that they ipight be able when the worst should come, 
to say, all is lost but honor. When the American Rebellion cut off 
the Northern States from the turpentine supply of North Carolina, 
and the whale fisheries were showing signs of decay, trade in all its 
branches which had depended upon these resources, gave signs of 
woe; but then the petroleum rivers overflowed, and the lubricated 
wheels of business rolled smoothly again; and one other world's 
•catastrophe was escaped. 

By way of a short cut to the conclusion, we may be allowed to 
suggest that, if England and France have survived their crimes and 
follies ; if they are recovering from the insanities of centuries, and 
have taken a fresh start in business, no other people need fear the 
fates. The decadence of the civilized nations that are disposed to 
behave themselves as well as they can, is sheer nonsense. 

SUBSTITUTION OP THE ABUNDANT AND CHEAP FOR THE SCARCE 
AND DEAR IN THE SUPPORT OF MEN. 

Besides the increase of labor-saving machinery ; the substitution 
of artificial for natural labor ; improvement in travel and transpor- 
tation ; a vast increase in the quality and quantity of manufactured 
commodities; the rapidly growing yield of agriculture, both by 



6-4 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

improved cultivation and extension of territory for such use ; the 
abundant aid of commerce in distributing the materials and the 
products of skilled industry legitimately exchanged; and the almost 
miraculous helps of the natural sciences in extending the dominion 
of man over the subordinate creation on which he depends for his. 
earthly welfare, there is still another source of prosperity worthy of 
as much weight in the scale of our argument as either of these. 

Within a few years gas of mineral origin has been substituted for 
animal oil for producing artificial light in all the cities, and in every 
thriving borough in the country ; beet sugar and sorghum, which 
grow abundantly in the temperate climate, for the product of the 
cane, which requires a semi-tropical temperature ; roots which yield 
by the ton, for grain that multiplies only by the bushel for the food 
of men and the feed of domestic animals ; mineral oils have opened 
up from the interior of the earth in rivers, to replace vegetable and 
animal oils requiring so much of the surface soil to afford an ade- 
quate supply ; and manufactures have by their ever growing abun- 
dance and cheapness come to supply and displace a very large per- 
centage of food, which a greater waste of animal heat formerly 
required : aye, all the modern defenses against atmospheric cold are 
the equivalents of so much food in sustaining human life. Our 
clothing and our better habitations are worth half the food consumed 
in ages gone by for the maintenance of a comfortable temperature 
and health of body. By these ameliorations the average life of a 
generation has been extended from thirty-three to forty years since 
the beginning of the present century. 

In another and broader view, our proposition may be seen in 
convincing clearness, thus : In savage conditions men are robbers 
of the earth, and victims of the elements. They gather the forest 
fruits in their season, hunt the air and earth and waters for their 
food, and suffer all the privations of improvidence. A thousand 
acres scarcely suffice for the support of one man, and these he soon 
exhausts, and is soon exhausted in his turn. "When William Penn 
landed on the Delaware, there were not more than twenty-five thou- 
sand Indians from the Potomac to the chain of the northern lakes, 
and from Connecticut to the Allegheny River. There are eleven 
millions of men now, or four hundred and forty times that number. 
In the pastoral state the culture of cattle commences, and some 
sort of agriculture is introduced; but famines frequently occur, and 



WEALTH — SOURCES OF GROWTH. 65 

tlie cliildren of Israel must go into slavery in Egypt for an assured 
supply of corn — a barbarous civilization purchases the birthright 
of Jacob for a mess of pottage, as he had bought Esau's at the same 
price. Low as it is, this stage is an advancement in the supply 
and security of life. Semi-civilization becomes so far forth master 
of its own fortunes, and owners of the service of their inferiors. 
This results necessarily from the law that determines the conditions 
of society in every stage of progress. " Be fruitful, and multiply,, 
and replenish the earth, and subdue it," is the commission and the 
means of securing the promise it contains. 

Let us look, briefly, at the workings of the policy, in the processes 
employed for obtaining command of the earth's services in progress- 
ive improvements of human life. 

The vegetable kingdom, which yields, some thirty, some sixty,, 
and some an hundred-fold, is first drawn upon for its supplies. 
Animal food begins to be supplanted, immensely reduced in the 
temperate regions, and dispensed with in the tropical^ with gains 
proportionate to its reduction. Exclusive animal food, where pastur- 
age and feed must be used in its production, requires ten or twelve 
acres cultivated laud to grow the flesh diet of one man for one year ; 
one acre of wheat will support three persons — afi"ording thirty-six. 
times as much sustenance. One acre of potatoes will support nine 
persons — equal to one hundred and eight times the food yielded 
from the same extent of soil in flesh meat. In this ratio, advanced 
agriculture multiplies the means of subsistence, by this process of 
substitution, and in proportion, by all mixtures of these substances 
used for food. Even in the inferior races we have a good illustra- 
tion of the economy of a vegetable over an animal diet. The lion, 
tiger, bear, and other carnivorous beasts multiply slowly, while the 
vegetable eaters — the horse, ox, and buffalo multiply immensely; 
they go in herds, while the ravagers of the living things roam alone 
in the solitudes which they make. 

In apparel, as necessary to the life of the more advanced classes 
of men as food itself, and equally expensive, the vegetable flax and 
cotton displace a vast amount of wool which would otherwise be 
required. One acre of ground will produce as much of value in 
textile fabrics made of these, as a hundred acres will yield in the 
wool of sheep. 

But it is not only from the animal world to the vegetable that 



66 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

man proceeds in the multiplication of liis means of life — from the 
beasts that roam over the earth, through the cereals that grow 
above it, to the roots nourished in its bosom, with increasing plenty 
at each stage in the descent. He stops not here, but deeper still he 
■fiuds the richest repository of his resources in the bowels of the 
planet. The mineral kingdom, with its exhaustless stores, are next 
opened for his use. And it is a striking fact that labor, the only 
capital of the masses, who most need that their condition shall be 
leveled up to competency, and thence forward toward the luxu- 
ries that refine, enlarge, and ennoble the life of man, through all 
this progress from the scarce and costly, to the abundant and cheap, 
shall be more and more in demand for the work of the world, and 
will derive from it an ever increasing share of its products. In 
agriculture nine-tenths of the product goes to the share of the 
capitalist, but in mining three-fourths of the yield is in the reward 
of labor — another instance of the adjustment of means to ends in 
the system of Providence, and a sure advancement of the changes 
that are to carry the world from the savage to the millennial state of 
the human race — another proof that all the movements in human 
history are tending and tiding to better things and better still, in 
infinite progression. 

In the order of human advancement to complete dominion in the 
earth, we thus find the race going from the animal to the vegetable, 
and finally to the mineral world, for their subjects and their best 
services — from the narrowly-limited and the precarious animal sup- 
plies, to the more abundant and more secure vegetable, though sub- 
ject to the caprices of the seasons; and thence, at the last stage, to 
the body of the solid earth, whose stores dej^end upon neither time 
nor climate nor season, nor any of their changes. In the suc- 
cessive kinds of mineral contributions, it is curious to observe thJit 
gold and silver are found by savages in the sands of the water 
courses, while they are yet using implements of stone and wood in 
handicraft; that along with these, barbarous nations employ copper 
and iron, which they contrive to smelt and mould for use with fuel 
of wood, and in architecture they utilize stone and clay made into 
bricks; while civilization not only avails itself of the all-compelling 
power of heat prospectively provided for this use in the fossil coal 
that at present is the greatest agent in the world's work; yet 
further: just as modern geography has added a fifth-quarter to the 



WEALTH — SOURCES OF GROWTH. 67 

old world, so modern science has begun to annex another kingdom 
to the three that compassed the realm of man's subjects before the 
birth of chemistry. We are already familiar with the use of the 
imponderables, which have their pavilion in the clouds and their 
amphitheatre of exposition in the recesses of the globe. 

These successive stages of substitution stand in the following 
order, and the instances given will serve to illustrate it. 

First. From the animal to the vegetable kingdom : 

Vegetable food suhstUuted for Animal food. 

Cotton " Skins and wool. 

Flas and cotton " Silk. 

Hemp '•' Skins in sails and cordage. 

Gutta peroha, caoutchouc '■' Leather. 

AVooden canoe " The wild horse. 

Paper of rags " Parchment. 

Alcohol and vegetable oils " Animal oil. 

Second. From the vegetable to the mineral kingdom : 

Steel and gold pen and metallic tj'pes suhnfituted for The goose quill. 
Iron, stone, brick, slate, in ships and architecture, " Timber. 
Coal, gas, mineral oil " Wood as fuel. 

Third. From animals and vegetables to minerals : 

Iron Engines suhstituied for The horse, ox, and camel. 

Steel springs . " Feathers and hair. 

Glass " Skins. 

Mineral gas " Animal oil and wax, as light. 

Mineral manures " Animal and vegetable manures. 

Metal gun " Wooden bow and animal string. 

Wood and iron carriages " Animal transportation. 

Wooden and metallic machin- f Human bone and muscle in man- 

ery " ( ufacturing. 

Steam machinery " Animal power. 

Fourth. From animal, vegetable, and mineral to the imponder- 
ables : — 

Electricity substituted for living messengers and vegetable sails. 
Galvanic heat " vegetable and mineral heat. 

Beside these transitions from kingdom to kingdom of the material 
world, there is a constant substitution proceeding from the scarcer 
and costlier and poorer in each division to something better and 



68 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

easier of attainment within its own class, which we need not stop 
to specify ; but there is one instance which, being less familiar, or 
generally unknown, though already proved, deserves to be noticed 
here for its surpassing importance in the world's business aiFairs. 

This is gas for fuel made from water, and with the addition of 
carbon to answer the purpose of giving artificial light as we have it 
now from coal. Water largely supplies the combustible substance, 
and the required gas can be produced from it at about the tenth of 
the cost of the manufacture from coal. It is to her coal more than 
to all the other agents of industrial production, that England owes her 
supremacy in manufactures, and in their transportation to the world's 
markets. The promise of a substitute that will replace her coal 
when it shall be either exhausted or become over expensive in the 
mining, saves her from an utter failure of her industries ; but, as the 
supply of material for this service is common and exhaustless in all 
climates all over the earth, there can be no monopoly by any nation, 
and the industrial despotism of England will come to an end. 
Germany, France, Russia, and the United States are even now fast 
approaching independence of the " Workshop of the World." 
Some of these have coal fields that will furnish them for a few 
thousand years to come. These coal beds will be for generations 
easily worked, and the labor cost of their product will be light, while 
that of England will be continually increasing with the depth and 
distance to which the long-worked veins must be pursued. The 
natural growth of capital and labor in these favored regions will, at 
an early day, make their rivalry successful ; and if our expectations 
from water gas shall be realized, the end of British domination in 
the world's market will be the sooner and the more surely reached. 

This " Old Man of the Sea" has rendered good service in guiding 
the nations in their forward pathway, but it has been at the expense 
of carrying his weight till it has grown over-burthensome. The 
younger nations are coming of age, and the mother country must let 
go the leading strings. When pupilage becomes vassalage, resist- 
ance is compelled. Children that do not in due time reach maturity 
are unworthy of their parents. Australia, Canada, and the West 
Indies are already near the end of their political dependence, and 
they will soon strike effectively for economic freedom after the 
example of the United States, " The better day coming " cannot 
come till all this is done and well done. Mere political sovereignty 



WEALTH — SOURCES OF GROWTH. 69 

over her colonies never was her aim. It was achieved, and has 
been held in all her provinces for the one purpose of securing their 
markets. In the course of events the little islands of Great Britain 
which can be covered with a thimble on any middling sized map of 
the habitable globe, have lost the military preeminence among the 
nations that once could hold them in check, and her own territories in 
subjection. And they are fast losing that mastery in production, for 
which all England's wars were made, and which all her invasions 
were designed to secure. England must ere long descend from her 
pre-eminence, and take her befitting position among the rank and 
file of the nations. The world owes her much — a balance still 
after all the heavy payments made in return. But the patent right 
in discoveries must run out some time ; and in the things for which 
the rest of mankind are in her debt, that time arrives when the 
principal of the obligation is lost in the enormous interest which it 
has returned. 



CHAPTER VII. 

POPULATION — LAW OF INCREASE. 

Population : Rate of increase in United States, England and Wales, Prussia and 
France. — Great difference between peoples nearly alike in origin. — Malthusians 
hold a constant quantity in the reproductive function. — Variant death rate of 
earlier and later dates; Greatest in the sparsest populations. — Death rate nearly 
the same in communities which greatly differ in rate of total increase. — A con- 
stant quantity in the reproductive function, with relatively constant diminution 
of sustenance, held by the British authorities. — The protest of Philosophy and 
Philanthropy ; submission of Theologians, the reason why. — The primal curse 
contains a promise of sufficiency. — The facts of history. — The sources of the 
dismal philosophy. — Contradictions of these theorists. — Analogies forced upon 
differences. — Different data and method of the inquiry. — Arithmetical measure- 
ment of possible quantity of life and of food, indifferent. —SufSciencj', the 
issue. — Possible productiveness of man and earth unknown. — The question, one 
of principles and not of estimated numerals. — The strictly inductive sciences 
assume adjustment of means to ends. — The « posteriori method. — Limits of 
its province. — Does not apply to life united to liberty and responsibility. — All 
the facts not within the range of observation and experiment. — Their focal 
point and interpretation, in the design of the Creator. — The a priori or deduct- 
ive method alone capable of the problem of man's relations to his material 
conditions. — A posteriori method, the vice of metaphysics and political 
economy. — The past and future in the physical sciences rest upon the a 
priori system of reasoning. — A sound faith must be corroborated by facts as 
far as they go. — The power of vital reproduction in an inverse ratio to the 
power of maintaining life — an universal law. — No corrective checks in the 
inferior animals — Viability and fecundity proportioned to each other, and 
adjusted to the intention of the life. — The intention is to provide for the 
continuance of kinds, and to meet the casualties to which they are sub- 
ject. — Transfer of this law from different species, to equally varied conditions 
of the human species. — Justified by the historic changes in the human death 
rate, and the explanation it affords of the almost fabulous populations of 
ancient times. — The supply answers the demand, and the demand rules the 
supply. — The results afforded by the argument of analogy. — The law tried by 
the inductive method. — lis physiological basis contained in three proposi- 
tions or general laws of the human organism. — Disease a broken balance of 
functional activities. — Unequal distribution of action among the several organs 
in health. — Effect of habitual concentration. — Actual action of organs not 
measured by their possibilities. — Nervous functions antagonize the reproduc- 
tive. — Remedy for excess in balanced activity. — The excess meets the losses of 
70 



I 



POrULATION. 71 

disordered, life. — Improvements in the forms of labor, the self-acting correct- 
ive. — The remedy most active just where it is most needed. — The promise in 
intellectual improvement. — Advancement in agriculture will diminish demand 
and increase supply. — Moral improvement will bring with it greater pro- 
duction of sustenance and greater economy in consumption.— Tendency of 
progress to restore equilibrium of functions and harmony of relations between 
earth and man. — Apparent exception. — Indian chivalry. — Activity of the 
nervous functions in the Hunter tribes; their infertility falls within the rule of 
our law. — Physiological ignorance checks criticism in special cases. — -Considera- 
tion due to exceptions. — The present emigration from Western Europe. — Sum- 
mary of conclusions. — -Great mortality results from abuses. — Waste of life not a 
blunder of the Creator. — Excessive fertility designed to repair abnormal loss. — 
The remedy in the evil. — The law works to good. — Happy results, the marks 
and tests of Nature's laws. 

The distribution of wealtli would fitly follow the examinatiou 
we have given to the laws governing its accumulation; but our 
inquiries have a drift that requires the preliminary investigation of 
a subject intimately involved in the question of sustenance adjusted 
to numbers — the law of the relation of Population to supply. We 
begin with the facts that we may have the. field fairly before us. 
In the sixty years preceding 1860, the population of the United 
States increased very nearly three per cent per annum (com- 
pounded), or, at the rate of doubling every twenty-three and a half 
years. The native white people, after deduction of the immigrants, 
may be put at two and seven-sixteenths per cent per annum, at which 
rate they duplicated once in twenty-seven years. Great Britain (Ire- 
land excluded) doubled its numbers in the last fifty years, but 
allowance for emigration would reduce the period to forty-six 
years, or one and one-half per cent per annum. Prussia increased 
very nearly at the same rate, while France, almost stationary, has 
been increasing no more than one-fourth of one per cent per 
annum, requiring two hundred and seventy-seven years to double 
her population. 

These are enough to exhibit the varied rates of actual increase 
occurring among nations nearly enough alike to be classed together 
for comparison. Men differing from each other constitutionally no 
more than the German and Celtic stocks in Europe, and their mixed 
descendants in America, are thus found to vary in rate of natural 
increase as the numbers twenty-seven, forty-six, and two hundred 
and seventy-seven do from each other. It must be understood of 
these figures that they express the present current movement of 



72 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

population in the countries named ; and, throwing out of considera- 
tion, for the present, the difference of conditions that may be sup- 
posed to iiffect the results, we note the fact that, so far, we have 
found nothing to support the doctrine that the reproductive func- 
tion in the human race is a constant quantity, as the school of 
Malthus assumes and asserts it to be. 

Neither has the law of mortality any greater constancy or uni- 
versality. The death rate varied in London in one hundred and 
sixty years (from 1G85 to 1845) from one in twenty-three of its 
inhabitants at the former date, to one in forty at the latter. The 
ordinary mortality of London, in the seventeenth century, says 
Macaulay, was as great as a visitation of the cholera would make it 
in the nineteenth. Thus a main element in the population theory, 
imposed upon us by the authorities, is affected by difference of time 
and attendant circumstances. One of these circumstances^ what- 
ever may be said of the others, is particularly unfortunate for the 
over-population theory. The inhabitants of London, when its 
death rate was at the highest, were not more than one-twelfth of 
the number that the city contained when their mortality was re- 
duced to one-half the proportion of the earlier date. 

But in contemporary history we have a record that is every way 
irreconcilable with the theory of a constant quantity in the func- 
tion of procreation. In the year 1860, England, whose popula- 
tion grows at the rate of doubling once in forty-six years, shows 
one death to every forty-four living persons. The United States, 
which double their numbers by natural increase once in twenty- 
seven years, had one death to every forty-five inhabitants; France, 
which scarcely grows in numbers at all, had one death in forty- 
four. Here the proportion of deaths to the living people is almost 
the same, notwithstanding the immense disparity in the movement 
of population in these three countries; and Prussia, which increases 
its people not a whit faster than England and Wales, had one death, 
to thirty-two of its people in that year. The inference, not to be 
escaped is, that a difference in the proportion of births to popula- 
tion, in nations so nearly alike as these are, must be the cause of 
the vastly variant increase of the people. 

But this "constant quantity" of the pretended law encounters 
still more embarrassment, and more emphatic contradiction, when its 
application is tried upon very widely different races, or families of 



POPULATION. 73 

mankind, which we will notice when we come to explain it iu the 
light of what we take to be a true theory of the subject. 

Only the Malthusian economists and the utterly unschooled pub- 
lic hold a fixed rate, and natural predetermined proportion of births 
to adults, without respect to conditions, or, if the school prefers it 
a determined possibility of procreative power inherent in the human 
constitution. These theorists are also distinguished from all other 
thinkers by holding the inference from their premises, that there 
is in the constitution of earthly things a positive, natural and ever- 
increasing disparity between the production of human life and the 
capability of the earth to support it. 

The best known British authorities are of this party. Their 
systems of political economy are built upon it, and can stand on no 
other ground. 

The over-population theory, presented at the beginning of the 
present century in the imposing form of a scientific demonstration, 
did not pass without protest. It is impossible in this age to allow 
philosophy to justify war, pestilence, and famine, as the necessary 
correctives of mischiefs resulting from the laws of nature. The 
support and apology for despotism, which the doctrine aflfords, is 
just as abhorrent to the sentiments of charity and philanthropy. 
Theologians, it would seem, strangely enough, were less offended. 
The doctrine in its scientific array sprang from a clergyman of the 
Church of England, and was early and eagerly indorsed by Dr. 
Chalmers, of the Free Church of Scotland. The strong tendency 
of the religious sentiment to regard the present life as under a 
curse, and the disorders of the terrestrial system, as the reign of 
punitive justice, with a necessary suspension of providential benefi- 
cence, perhaps, accounts for the submission of the pulpit to this 
revolting philosophical heresy. The "thorns and thistles" of the 
primal curse, and all the resistance of nature to the dominion of 
man, which it signifies, is, indeed, abundantly fulfilled, yet there is 
a reassuring clause in the doom pronounced : " In the sweat of thy 
face shalt thou, eat bread, until thou return unto the ground." 
The condition being performed, there is here not only no threat of 
famine, but a promise of supply. Laymen, while they admit that 
the earth is "a vale of tears," may be allowed to press the miti- 
gating promise, and urge the proper measures of relief upon the 
faith and hope of the world. In the more cheerful understand- 
6 



74 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

ing of the earth's ecoDomy, there is no need of "justifying the 
ways of Grod to man," and, what is still more to the purpose, there 
is no necessity for justifying the ways of man to man. It insists 
that better ways of administering the affairs of earth would im- 
prove the terrestrial condition of her children. But where is the 
tise of beneficent endeavor if it must necessarily fail — if in the 
settled order of sublunary things population increases fiister than 
the supply of sustenance can any way be made to meet? 

But the facts of human history in all places and times down to 
the present : Do they not support the doctrines of the dismal 
school ? We answer that so far as they can support anything, 
they do; and we take leave to add, that the disorders of misgov- 
ernment and the ill-distribution of the products of industry, the 
pauperism, the potato rot, and the enforced emigration of Europe, 
are the puddles from which her philosophers draw all their data, 
and fabricate their principles ; grounds about as good for a system 
of providential laws as a street riot affords for constructing a phi- 
losophy of societary organization. How these people philosophize 
upon the facts which disorder supplies ! 

Of the host of writers upon this subject, some hold that 
abundance of food increases human fertility in a direct ratio ; as 
if, because deficiency of sustenance induces disease and death, 
sufficiency must run to excess of life ! Others are of a directly 
opposite opinion. According to them, fecundity is in the inverse 
ratio of sustenance. This direct antagonism is about equally well 
supported by such facts as the respective parties select and use in 
their demonstrations. Some think that vegetable is a stronger 
stimulant than animal food ; for which they cite the greater pro- 
ductiveness of herbivorous than of carnivorous animals: forget- 
ting that the fishes literally fill the seas, yet live for the most part 
upon other fishes and insects ; and, abov,e all, forgetting that they 
are carrying over such facts from that world of animal life, whose 
destiny is limited, and whose creatures are incapable of the liberties 
of progressiveness, which is the distinguishing ingredient of re- 
sponsibility, to the world of man, whose fortunes and fate are not 
bounded by his instincts, but who is made master of the conditions 
on which his well-being depends, and must, therefore, in his constitu- 
tion and capabilities, be adjusted to his destiny. 

The assumption that man is only a beast, as to the laws of his 



POPULATION. 75 

life and his relations to surrounding thiogs, is not a safe starting- 
point for a philosophy of his nature and fortunes. So far as his 
constitution exactly corresponds to that of inferior creatures, and, 
so far as his functions are bounded by the like limits and uses, the 
argument from analogy is legitimate ; but from the point of depar- 
ture where his endowments begin to look to a totally different use 
and end, all analogous reasoning must stop, because it no longer 
serves for interpretation. 

The method here to be adopted in discussing the law of the re- 
lation of population to the means of subsistence will greatly abridge, 
as well as greatly change, the process of inquiry. For reasons 
that a little further on will be seen, we abstain now from consider- 
ing either the historic or the possible fertility of the race, or of the 
capabilities of the earth as a means of measuring their adjustment 
to each other. The quantity of effect in either is obviously indif- 
ferent, provided they are, under an overruling law, adapted to each 
other. Not the actual numbers of the one, but the sufficiency of 
the one to the other, is the point at issue. In fact, the quantity of 
the possible products of neither is known. Neither the possible 
productiveness of the earth, of the soil, the waters, and the air, nor 
the future or ultimate rate of increase in the numbers of men, 
are, or can be, now ascertained. These problems cannot be brought 
within the range of arithmetical estimate. The question rests not 
upon numerals, but upon principles. 

The chief of these principles belongs to the province of final 
causes — a rule of reasoning by no means unknown or unused in the 
cultivation of the strictly physical sciences. The Inductive Sys- 
tem, itself, is compelled to assume that the means are provided in 
the constitution of things for the accomplishment of the ends 
clearly indicated. It cannot advance a step in any path of dis- 
covery without postulating the principle that the prophesy of the 
end, in all the realms of nature, is the pledge and proof of provided 
means. There is no other bfisis for any science of created things. 
An orbit, with an apparatus of vision, found in a fossil skull, means 
a provision of light, or it means nothing. A skeleton chest, with 
a slight twist in the ribs, proves conclusively the coexistence of 
respirable air — the structure of a tooth implies the contemporaneous 
existence of a particular kind of food 3 so, natural science builds 
its certainties as much upon the harmonies of the creation, and as 



76 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

confidently, too, as upon any observations of events or any results 
of expei-imeut. Thus far the matter-of-fiict philosophy extends 
itself into the domain of the deductive or a priori system of 
reasoning ; unconsciously, perhaps, but actually and effectively. 

The rigid a posteriori method traces the fixcts of observation 
from the simplest, up through successive and enlarging generaliza- 
tions, till the most general fact is found, which is taken to be the 
law of the whole series. This is the rule of inquiry into the 
laws of unmixed materialism, and it is legitimate and suc- 
cessful only in. the department of physics; in general terms, it rules 
among the phenomena of celestial and terrestrial mechanics. 

But it has never had any success in mental philosophy, ethics, 
civil government, or social science, or any remedial system of either 
animal or societary life ; that is, in any department of human 
knowledge concerned with the errors and abuses of liberty. More- 
over, the phenomena of life united with liberty or will acting upon 
motives, and accompanied by responsibility, are not complete 
enough in range, nor clear enough in their meaning, within the 
limits of experience, to indicate their central or supreme truths; 
for the reason that the ends and aims lie all out of the reach of 
observation and experiment. They centre not in the midst of the 
known, but away beyond all its measurable lines. The drift and 
tendency of the facts may be seen, indeed, but their focal point is 
in the design of the Creator. 

Water may be resolved into its constituent gases, and may again 
be recomposed of them. The circuit of its possibilities is thus 
known, and the relations of its elements to each other are revealed 
in kind and measure. But of man we know but little, either of his 
past or present, that can serve to prophesy his future. Our know- 
ledge of his relations to the things around him is so incomplete, 
and, withal, so uncertain, that the inductive philosophy is warned by 
its own principles not to reason from a part, as if it were the whole, 
and inquiry is of necessity remitted to the method which assumes 
the means required for expectant ends. 

The misuse of the u posteriori, or inductive method, in matters to 
which it docs not apply — of which it is wholly incapable — is the vice 
of our metaphysics and of our political economy; and it is owing to 
this that neither of them is truly a science, or even capable of ren- 
dering safe service throughout their respective realms of study. 



POPULATION. 77 

The most rigid of the Baconian philosophers who thinks it 
unsafe to venture beyond the circuit of his five senses, cannot 
object to our assuming just what he must assume, before he can 
reason at all on anything of the past that has left only its vestiges, 
or anything of the future which affords only its hints of the un- 
arrived. He believes, and he assumes, the harmonies and adjust- 
ments of means and processes to their obvious ends, and he inter- 
prets those processes and agencies by the ends in which they centre 
and ultimate themselves. We only use his license, and follow his 
example in believing that, whether the earth was made for man, or 
man for the earth, they must mutually suit and serve each other, 
and that there cannot exist a war of design in the relations of 
either to the other. 

I would not, however, intimate that our theory of the matter in 
hand rests alone upon our faith in providential adjustment of the 
earth to human needs; for a sound faith must be corroborated by 
facts as far as they go. Such corroboration is plainly found in the 
facts of observation, and in analogies which partially measure and 
cover the ground which we take. 

Among the various species of animated beings we find one in- 
variable and universal fact : The power of reproduction of life is 
in an inverse ratio to the power of maintaining it. The insects 
of a day are produced in myriads ; the lower animals, whose span 
is limited to half a dozen years, are reduced and limited to hun- 
dreds of offspring ; while the higher grades, who live a score or more 
years, are in due proportion less prolific. This is the law as it 
obtains among various species of the animated creatures inferior to 
man, and it has this analogous bearing upon our problem : It pro- 
vides for the necessary numbers and continuance of kinds, and 
meets the casualties to which they are respectively subject. 

Did any one ever imagine that the abridgment of the term of 
life in these creatures was designed to correct a natural fertility 
beyond the provision for their subsistence ? 

Now, can we carry over this law and its plain intention, as far 
as correspondence exists, and apply it to the varied conditions of 
the human race? May we extend a principle which rules among 
distinct species of beings, to as large a difference of conditions oc- 
curring in a single race or species, having seen, as we believe, the 
intention of the principle, and found in the various conditions of 
» 



78 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

that species tlie like necessity for the analogous working of the 
principle ? Let us see how the application will justify itself: 

In the savage and barbarous states, and in the earlier stages of 
civilization — in all the periods of disorder, past and present — the 
mortality of the race in early life is frightfully large. The power 
to maintain life is low, and the rate of reproduction is, as the principle 
we are borrowing requires, very large. This is seen in the drudges 
of civilization everywhere in Europe. The proposition is accurately 
supported by the whole history of the past which is definitely 
known. The average term of life has been lengthening, since the 
earliest authentic records, step by step with the improvements, 
social, sanitary, and economical, that have been progressively min- 
istering to its preservation ; and it is just as true that to the extent 
to which famine and pestilence liave been abated or abolished, 
fecundity has been proportionately diminished. The almost in- 
credible populations given in ancient history are explained on our 
theory by the proportionately briefer term of average life. The sup- 
ply answers the demand ; and our inference is, that the supply will, 
in the future, be limited and determined by the demand. We have 
the prospect of a continual improvement in the conditions of men. 
We expect still better and better sanitary regulation of societary 
life; better support by food, clothing, and lodging; better morals, 
and better and broader conformity to the laws of mental and bodily 
health — all the happy influences of spiritual and material progress; 
that is, in the terms of our proposition, a greater power to maintain 
individual life, and with it a proportionate reduction in the rate 
of reproduction. These results the argument from analogy aiFords us. 
These we take to be the mutual f»djustments which the providential 
law secures. 

Giving their due weight to the arguments offered, and asking for 
them no more than they may logically claim, we propose now to 
meet the question directly after the manner, and using the data, of 
the inductive system of the matter-of-fact philosophy which must 
be confronted with its own weapons, and on its own ground of faith. 
We turn to the well-established laws of the organism whose func- 
tions and 'force of action are the conditions of the problem. In the 
three following propositions we think the demonstration of our 
doctrine will be found : 

1st. The nervous system in the different species of creatures 



\ 
POPULATION. 79 

varies with tlieir respective capability of maintaining life — larger 
proportionately as they are longer-lived. 

2d. The degree of fertility is regularly in inverse proportion to 
the development and activity of the nervous system ; the larger and 
the more active nervous systems being always the least, and the 
smaller and less active, the most prolific. 

3d. The functions of the various organic systems in the indi- 
vidual divide among themselves the aggregate of his vital power, 
being equally active in a state of equilibrium^ but in all unequal 
distributions of activity the dominating function is sustained at the 
expense of one or more of the others. 

The first of these propositions need not be argued, nor does it 
require illustration by examples. The reader is only fairly assumed 
to be ready to accept, and from familiar instances to confirm it, or 
in defect of the necessary information, he may find it in any good 
work upon human or comparative physiology. 

The second proposition results from the third, but is entitled to 
distinct statement because of its eminent force among the instances 
of the third, and its direct relevancy to the question under considera- 
tion. Such demonstration as seems to be demanded by the last two, 
considered as one, is here submitted. 

Disease manifests this diversion of energy from one or more sets 
of organs, and its concentration upon others, as in fever, where the 
excitement of the nervous and circulating systems is inordinately 
great at the expense of the muscular and digestive systems ; and so 
in every morbid state involving the frame more or less generally. 
Disease has been well and pertinently defined, a hrohen balance of 
excitement. A similar inequality of distribution of vital power is 
almost constantly exhibited in conditions not incompatible with the 
general health; and its necessity is, in all instances of intense occu- 
pation, enforced and felt. The examples are familiar in every one's 
experience in his casual application of one function, or one set of 
associated functions. In cases of permanent concentration, where 
the fixity amounts to a habit, excluded ofiices of the body or mind 
fall into the incapacity of disuse; the predominant offices deteriora- 
ting or disabling those which must be robbed to enrich them. 

The first deduction to be drawn for present use from facts so 
obvious as these, is, that no fixed and invariable quantity of action, 
or of results, can be predicated of any one of the distinct systems of 



80 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

organs in tlie human body; mucli less can the highest possibility of 
any one be taken as its measure of activity in all times, places 
and circumstances, as the "constant quantity" of the Malthusians 
affirms. All this is eminently true of the antagonism of the nervous 
and reproductive powers, as appears in the excessive fecundity of the 
drudges of civilization — among the former slaves of the Southern 
States and the correspondent toilers of Europe. There does not 
appear to be such incompatibility in muscular as in nervous activity. 
The intellectual and moral faculties of themselves, and these as they 
are acted upon by the external senses, seem to be special antagonists 
of those specially concerned in the propagation of the race. Just 
where the animal prevails over the mental habits of life, and in pro- 
portionate degree, fecundity is seen to increase ; suggesting plainly 
enough that the remedy for excess of population is not in this or 
that kind of food, nor in artificial restraint, but in the duly- 
balanced development of the intellectual and moral functions of the 
brain and nerves. All the contrarieties of fact which every other 
theory encounters are found perfectly accordant with this one, as 
expressed in our three general propositions. The conclusion to be 
drawn from them is, that a harmonious culture of all the powers of 
body and mind will insure the equilibrium that corrects all dispro- 
portion, either of excess or of defect, in any of them. In accordance 
with tiiese fundamental principles, the facts of past and present ob- 
servation which seem to threaten an over population of the globe, 
are met and disarmed of their terrors by the obvious reflection that 
disorder in the vital offices, giving preponderance to the procreative 
powers and enfeebling the constitutional corrective of the mental 
and moral faculties, explains the evil and discovers the remedy. 
The surplus, however, is to be understood not only nor wholly mis- 
chievous, but as serving to replace the waste of life occurring in 
conditions that rather tend to extinction than to excessive numbers 
of the race. 

The prospective operation of these laws — their more and more 
happy vindication in the future, is their most attractive claim upon 
our attention. They are not only explanatory of an existing dis- 
order, but they are remedial in their operation. Through what 
agencies and in what conditions are they to exhibit their best efforts ? 
How is the disturbed balance to be restored, and how are the har- 
monic results to be realized ? 



POPULATION. 81 

The change in the forms and kinds of human labor that are so 
well begun and advanciag so rapidly, promise a more and more com- 
plete substitution of artificial for natural labor. This modification 
of agency in industrial production is characterized by an ever-in- 
creasing release from muscular toil, and a proportioned substitution 
of art and skill, and thought, and their associate elevations of feeling, 
which must, while they educate the proper human nature in its 
superior powers, equally develop and occupy the brain and nervous 
system; thus ever more and more strengthening their counter- 
balance of the animal functions. It is among the classes of men 
that are usually called the masses that the remedy is specially 
demanded, and here we have, in the very labor which they must 
pursue, the opportunity for the action of the remedial principle pro- 
vided. The moral regimen prescribed is, mind mixed more and 
more largely with muscle in producing the commodities required 
for human support Reformed labor, working toward the harmony 
of functional activity in the individual labors. 

Men look now for a better, broader, more diffusive and effective 
mental education in the future, growing upon a grand advancement 
already secured — another source of brain development, and an 
effective aid to its counter-balancing power. 

Shall we have, resultingly, an improved agriculture ; helping, on 
the one side to replenish the store of sustenance, while the direct 
operation of mental education serves to restrain the present excess 
of requirement ? 

Again : do we look for a progressive improvement iu the morals 
of the masses, and an equally improved administration of social, 
civil, and international justice ? This promi.se, also^ carries the 
double aspect of correction at once in the relative demand of the 
mass of consumers, and in the economies of consumption. Moral 
refinement will give the required supremacy of man proper over 
his insurgent animalism, and it will at the same time check the 
waste of war, the defects and misdirection of industry, and the 
misuse of the means of life. In a thousand ways the future presents 
itself in expectation, as a restorer of that equilibrium among the 
various activities of the human organism on which depends a 
growing adjustment of the living man to the material elements 
appointed to sustain him, and to promote his welfare in the. exact 
proportion that he conforms to the laws of the things created 



82 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

for liis use, aud which cauaot fail in the service but by their 
abuse. , 

The principle here asserted must be familiarized before criticism 
is safe. Some one, for instance, may an-swer, " but the Nortli 
American Indians have been remarkable for infertility ; they are, 
as a race, but sliijjhtly endowed with the intersexual affections, 
and they are savage in ignorance and in pursuits." We answer: 
they are hunters, followers of Diana, the godde.s« of the chase and 
of chastity, by which the Greeks must have meant something that 
found its correspondence in things well known. These savages are 
as much distinguished from the lowest class of civilizees in their 
occupations as in fecundity. They have a fiery, nervous tempera- 
ment, great acuteness of the perceptive faculties, willfulness, arro- 
gance — sentiments that are the rougher half of those that consti- 
tute the chivalric among us; they are proud, desperately selfish, 
brave, revengeful, absolutely ungovernable, and incapable of en- 
slavement. They are eminently the men who do die in the last 
ditch, and they are as eloquent as unlettered men can be. All 
this indicates very considerable activity of bi'aiu, and in the very 
direction that specially answers to the principle by which our theory 
would explain them. 

The hunter life demands great vigilance, alertness, and sharpness 
of observation and reflection, which draws largely upon the nerves 
of sense and the coordinating power of the brain. Their perpetual 
warfare among themselves is another heavy drain upon the nervous 
system, in all the modes of action that danger, ambition, and emu- 
lation so powerfully induce. Their whole life is a rapid alternation 
of toil and sloth, surfeit and want, and their social intercourse, or 
system of society, rather represses than favors the affections. The 
tone as well as the character of the governing impulses is un- 
friendly to sexual attachments, and thus this apparent objection 
falls very fully into the rank of an example under the rule. 

The application of this doctrine to cases not apparently accordant, 
which may present themselves in one of a thousand or a hundred 
instances, need not be considered here. Their special conditions 
are seldom known, aud medical science is yet so far from fathoming 
the my.sterics of the reproductive fliuctions that nothing of force 
belongs to it in the investigation of the question. Besides, a pro- 
digious array of clear examples may easily be adduced wherein 



POPULATION. 83 

unquestionable absorption of the vital forces, by tbe mental activi- 
ties of the life, are in tbe fullest accord witb tbe tenor of tbe law 
wbicb tbe larger and more completely comprebensive view of facts 
tborougbly establisbes. Exceptions are not to be ignored, because 
rules admit of tbem, or because tbey prove tbe rule, as tbe proverb 
most illogical ly affirms, for, in fact, tbey contradict the rules wbicb 
sbould include and govern tbem ; but because, in tbe inquiry in 
band, tbey are not proved to be exceptions. Tbe believers in a 
law are not bound to explain away, or to surrender to, accidental 
instances, wbicb neitber tbey nor anybody else understand. 

Emigi'ation as we see it and as it lias been in past times, is com- 
pelled by tbe failure to carry forward tbe improvement of tbe man 
in conformity witb the law that adjusts him to tbe supply of sus- 
tenance. Labor in Western Europe, so far from improving him and 
regulating his increase of numbers in harmonic relations to the in- 
creased productiveness of tbe soil, works on the contrary to tbe 
constant depression of tbe lowest class — these are tbe emigrants in 
tbe much largest porportion. The more advanced classes of European 
society do not migrate, and tbe most favored and best developed 
portion of tbe people are stationary in place, for tbe reason that 
tbey do not multiply in oflfspring; tbe very highest scarcely keeping 
up their numbers, as witness tbe great number of instances in which 
titles have become extinct in England from utter failure of heirs to 
inherit tbem. 

Tbe emigration from France is almost nothing, because there 
population is nearly stationary. 

A summary of the conclusions to be drawn from this brief dis- 
cussion of the laws of population may be compactly put in this 
form : — 

Tbe waste of life in the past is due to an abnormal preponderance 
of tbe animal, over the intellectual and moral faculties of the race. 

That waste of life is not the corrective of a blunder in the Crea- 
tor's system, but results from an abuse of the reproductive function, 
and its excessive activity provides for tbe waste incident to the dis- 
orders of human societies. It is a remedy in its nature and inten- 
tion, and not a mistake or maladjustment of natural laws. 

Population is self-regulative. In tbe organization of tbe human 
frame there is a perpetual endeavor toward the establishment of 
equilibrium between the demand for sustenance and the earth's 



84 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

supplies ; so tliat ultimate and complete harmony awaits tlie con- 
formity of man to the laws under which he has his life ; and which 
in the mean time is growing in exact proportion to his growing 
development. This is obviously the meaning of the divine promise. 
" Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness [conform 
your life to the Divine Order], and all these things shall be added 
unto you," namely, " what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, or 
wherewithal ye shall be clothed." 

Despair is doctrinal infidelity, and the source of misdirection, with 
all the ills that attend ignorance and error in man's mismanagement 
of his earthly dominion. 

There is something healthy, holy, happy in these conclusions, and 
they are for these sufficient reasons true. 

Note. — Limited in plan and space, the writer cannot task himself to trace the 
first authorship of all the doctrines he adopts, but for fuller satisfaction in the 
matter of this chapter, he refers the reader to an article in the Westminater Revieiu 
for April, 1852, since ascribed to Herbert Spencer, and to Carey's Social Science, 
vol. ii., pp. 265-306, for a more detailed discussion of the subject. 



I 



CHAPTER VIII. 

DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH — WAGES. 

Distribution of Wealtli — Wages : In the savage state ; in barbarism ; in civiliza- 
tion ; Carey's law of " Labor Value." — Bastiat's identical. — Quality of labor 
improves in the ratio of quantity of cooperating capital; its productiveness in- 
creased, and price of the products lessened proportionately. — Tendency of the 
law to equality of benefits demonstrated. — More liberal wages secure better 
work — the capitalist's interest supplies the motive. — Wages the index of pro- 
ductiveness. — In progressive communities only land and labor increase in value 
— reasons. — Value, the cost of reproduction. — Rise of the laborers in history. — 
Wages, nominal and real; value of money must be resolved into its purchasing 
power. — Agricultural wages in England, A. D. 1660 to 1688. — Price of wheat at 
the time. — Wages in manufactures in 1680, a shilling a day. — Doubled in one 
hundred and twelve years. — Price of wheat the same at the end of one hundred 
and fifty years. — Food of the people at the end of the seventeenth century. — 
Wages have risen faster than the price of food. — Tropical productions declined, 
and manufactures reduced sixtj' per cent in thirty-five years (1817-1862). — Labor 
rises in value in the ratio that productiveness increases ; statistics of the United 
States in proof. — Wages of skilled industry rise fifteen and one-eighth per cent 
in the ten years 1850-1860; doubling in forty-seven years.— Rise in the United 
States, in the same ratio to growth of national wealth as in England, showing a 
law of equable growth, but, the law of the growth of wages relatively to that of 
cooperating capital is not equable. — Rate of increase of wages much more rapid 
than that of the enhancement of profits upon the capital jointly employed, — How 
advance of wages is provided for without corresponding loss to capital. — Sta- 
tistical demonstration.— The provision traced to its source — the substitution of 
machinery and artificial force for human l^or, proof by the figures of the 
' census. — Artificial labor releases men from low-prieed drudgery and remits them 
to the higher styles of work with their higher wages. — The greater effectiveness 
of the natural agents enhances the fund upon which labor draws for its reward. — 
Wages increase and employment also increases with all improvement in the 
modern modes of converting industry. — Apjiarent losses of capital explained. — 
Both labor and capital increase their gains, but at unequal rates. — Labor gains 
fifteen, capital five per cent. — The laborer's share of increased productiveness 
increases in proportion ; that of capital declines. — In quantity 6o<A increase, but 
the laborer's most rapidly. — The harmony of these interests working through 
all the unhappy conflicts of the parties. — Wages of women have tripled while 
those of men have been doubling. — Reasons of this difi'erent rate of advance- 
ment. — Why the year 1814 is taken as the date of the new era of wages. — The 

85 

/ 



86 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

liabilitj' of statistical figures to abuse. — Figures must be rectified by facts. — The 
capriciousness of prices. — Not fluctuations, but changes from permanent causes 
show the truth. — Price of iron in illustration. — Causes of unsteadiness in prices. — 
General results, a better guidance than figures without facts. — Women's wages 
in house work have increased in real value about six times, while those of skilled 
laborers have been doubling. — Men's real wages advancing five fold in a part 
of their consumption, accompanied, besides, with many gratuitous additions and 
cheapened uses, availing for their welfare. — AVages and food, flesh meats onlj' 
increased in price. — Aggregate annual wages of 1814 and 1860 distributed in 
subsistence, showing actual increase. — Wages effectively doubled iu the United 
States once in fifty-five years. — Different results of arithmetical processes from 
different data used in these computations. — Epochal dates in societarj' and 
economic movements cannot be precise. — Error in amounts do not affect the 
percentage of increase which is the subject of inquiry. — Census reports of values 
all too low. — Under modifications, according to the greater or less aid of capital, 
wages are the index of productiveness. 

Having showu the capability of the earth to supply subsistence, 
and all the means of well-being abundantly adequate to the re- 
quirements of its total inhabitants, we are nest concerned to see 
what provision is made in the constitution and order of things for 
an equitable and beneficent distribution of its products among the 
members of human communities. 

In the savage state all things are so far common to all, that the 
allotment of property is determined by individual appropriation 
and the power to hold possession. Here there is no division of 
capital and labor ; no system of progressive accumulation ; no pro- 
ductive work, in its proper sense, there being no surplus reserved 
for further production; no capital and, therefore, no wages, as a 
share of joint production. And, if there are none of the special 
evils of inequality in wealth, there are, also, none of its possibili- 
ties of better things to come. 

In barbarism there is Accumulation with its eminent creative 
power, and to the freer portion of the people, that interest in pro- 
duction called wages, and the benefits of industrial enterprise. 
The many may be, under some of the forms of slavery, without 
capital or its reflected service, and may have no recognized property 
right, even in the means of subsistence. But the laws of an orderly 
distribution of wealth are beginning to work. 

Civilization (distinguished from barbarism by its necessary ex- 
clusion of personal slavery) distributes the joint product of labor 
and capital iu the several kinds of profits, under the names of rent, 



LAW or WAGES. 87 

interest, and wages} but an equitable allotment of profits is not 
yet secured. Equity encounters hostile interests, and unequal 
power in the parties to assert its claims ; and wrongs, with their 
attendant disorders and mischiefs, disturb and derange distribution 
in freedom, even as they do in slavery, though less in degree and 
less hopelessly. 

Let us now see how, in these circumstances, the laws of the sub- 
ject work toward their end, which we assume to be the general and 
individual improvement of the welfare of men in progressive com- 
munities. 

In the year 1837 Mr. Carey first announced to the world his 
doctrine of " labor value " with such resistless demonstration of its 
truth, that even the highest authority of the rival school of politi- 
cal economy, Frederick Bastiat, adopted it in 1850, under the 
verbal change of " service value," but so exactly identical in sub- 
stance that Professor Ferrara, of the University of Turin, says : 
" The theory, the ideas, the order, the reasoning, and even the 
figures of the ' Principles ' of Carey, and of the ' Harmonies ' of 
Bastiat, coincide perfectly." 

The unskilled may derive some additional assurance from such 
an indorsement, but the propositions of Mr. Carey are quite inde- 
pendent of any extrinsic support. His most general, or funda- 
mental, proposition takes this form : The quantity of capital and 
the quality of the labor jointly employed in production, are 
in direct relation to each other. All increase and decrease of 
the capital connects itself with corresponding improvement and 
deterioration of the labor. The passive and active agents are mar- 
ried "for better, for worse," which may be resolved into the fol- 
lowing dependent propositions : 

1st. Labor gains increased productiveness in the proportion that 
capital contributes to its efiicieucy. 

2d. Every improvement in the efficiency of labor, so gained by 
the aid of capital, is so much increased facility of accumulation. 

• 3d. Increased power of production and accumulation lessens pro- 
portionally the value of the products in labor cost, and of simi- 
lar products previously existing; thus bringing such products 
more easily within the purchasing power of present labor. This 
last-mentioned consequence is also covered by the same author's 
definition of value^ which, in his happy rendering, is simply the 



88 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

cost of vf-productioa, which is only another way of saying that, 
nothing can command a higher price than the cost of producing a 
similar thing at the time, and nothing can be produced at less than 
the cost of producing it. (The reader will, of course, take care to 
distinguish value, or cost of production, from price or selling price, 
which is casually aflfected by sacrifice and speculation.) 

The tendency of the law, as stated in the third proposition, to in- 
crease the relative share of labor up to its equitable proportion iu 
the profits of industry combined with capital, is too obvious to need 
illustration, provided labor wages do not suffer an abatement equiva- 
lent to, or greater than the reduction in the exchange value of the 
commodities. The argument of this point may be put thus : The 
laborer must receive his share, or wages, out of the product to which 
he contributes. That share depends upon the quantity of such 
product. The larger this is, the greater the fund on which he 
draws. When he hires the capital, his share is the residuum after 
paying the capitalist his interest, or profit, upon the investment. 
This is certain when the laborer is his own employer; and his profit 
is found in the enhanced productiveness of his labor due to the aid 
of capital. 

When the capitalist hires the labor, which is the more general 
state of the case, a like equitable division of profits is possible, or in 
other words the fund is created fur such equitable dividend, and it 
is made possible for him to receive the due advantage of his coopera- 
tion in the enlarged yield of his industry. This increased produc- 
tiveness results from the substitution of instruments, machinery, and 
artificial motor power, which is capital's share of the agencies em- 
ployed; and the laborer's advantage is in his release from low-priced 
drudgery, and in the employment of his higher faculties — the wages 
of skilled industry being always proportioned to its advancement 
above mere animal power. 

The ahilify of increased productiveness to afford increased wages 
is clear. What of the impelling or disposing motive in the em- 
ployer of labor ? To say nothing of the reserve of compelling 
power that there is in the laboring class, and the over-ruling force 
of the sentiment of justice embodied in public opinion, and cor- 
roborated by the ever-active working of providential beneficence 
for the welfare of the world ; it is found in such considerations as 
these : — 



1 



LAW OF WAGES. 89 

The liuman macliiue, like the inanimate, and for the same reasons, 
yields results to the employer in the measure of its capabilities and 
conditions. Its highest condition is necessary to its highest work- 
ing worth. But beside the food and clothing of the one, corre- 
sponding to the fuel, or other motor power, and the structural 
materials of the other, the human producer has his most availing 
force in his moral and rational faculties. The cultivation of these, 
up to their highest serviceableness, demands the opportunities of 
some leisure, the refinement of some luxury, the cordial stimulus of 
current comfort, and the excitement of future hope. Such develop- 
ment can come only from a liberal surplus of wages after provision 
is made for the common necessities of the mere animal life. The 
policy of parsimony, which denies these conditions, is as unwise as 
the saving of fuel which would keep a steam engine restrained to half 
its working power. The work of a man who is aiming at a seat in 
the American Congress is worth much more than that of the Euro- 
pean drudge whose prospect is the poor-house. The ox has more 
brute force, the engine more mechanical power, yet these are always 
had at a cheaper rate in their kinds of service than the labor market 
gives for the use of those high human qualities on which capital 
depends for the largest enhancement of its profits. Hence policy 
induces equity, and the effective partnership of the workman secures 
him a growing dividend of a growing productiveness. From the 
reason of the thing, therefore, there is a fair inference that wages 
must rise with productiveness step by step, and keep pace in im- 
provement with the yield of cooperating capital. The percentage 
of the labor share in the yield must be carried up with the growing 
value to which it is an indispensable contributor. 

There is, moreover, an overruling law which secures this result — 
a law established by all the facts of human experience : in ad- 
vancing communities nothing can increase in value except land and 
labor. The increasing power and worth of these reduce the labor 
cost and exchange value of all other things. The one being the 
raw material, and the other the converting agent, in the production 
of all commodities, their worth rises just in the ratio that the value 
of all other things declines. Value is simply the measure of the 
resistance that labor and skill meet in subduing natural objects to 
human use. The converting power must rise in utility in the degree 
of its growth, and it must also rise in exchange value in proportion 
7 



90 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

to the cost of its own production, which iu the case of labor is the 
cost of its education and training. Land necessarily rises as its 
elements are advanced from uselessness, or resistance to use, 
toward the serviceable states and forms that minister to man's 
requirements, and the cost of its improvement measures its 
value. A surface acre of ore unwrought, has no other than a 
prospective value; converted and carried up to its best forms, it 
realizes a market value of hundreds or thousands of dollars in the 
currency that commands all the means of human subsistence. In 
like manner, and for the like reasons, the labor of bones and 
muscles may be had at the price that barely supports life ; that of 
the artisan commands the means of advancement; and, the highest 
skill, united to taste, talent, and science, brings the rewards of the 
highest rank of service in the finer manufactures, in the fine arts, 
and in the learned professions. In all possible applications the 
definition is true — value is the cost of production, or of reproduc- 
tion at the time ; and all increase of skill and competency must 
have its proportioned price. 

The facts of history in the past, and all observation of the 
present, are in proof of these propositions. Ever since the sys- 
tem of villenage was abolished in England, the laboring masses 
have been rising into better conditions — very slowly in the days of 
the Stuarts; something faster under the reigns of the Georges; and 
with accelerated rapidity since the beginning of the present cen- 
tury. A full array of the evidence would require a separate trea- 
tise, but the pivot points of this history are entirely sufiicient. 

WAGES, NOMINAL AND REAL. 

Wages, in report from such records as exist, are, like the prices 
of other things, expressed in the money of the time ; but money 
has itself a very variable exchange value at distant periods; and, 
to understand its worth, we must know its purchasing power, or its 
command over the commodities required for consumption. Money 
is no more a standard of the things exchanged in the market than 
is any other commodity. It is the common medium of exchange, 
of all historic times, but it has been much more variable than auy- 
tfeing else culled, or used, as a measure in the world's business. 
Measures and weights — yards, bushels, and pound-weights — do not 



LAW OP WAGES. 91 

enter into the exchanges of the things which they gauge, hut 
money does, as a thing of intrinsic value, or as representative of 
some valuable medium. Its variableness in value, therefore, re- 
quires a reduction to its equivalents in the commodities of the 
time, or, as it is usually expressed, to its purchasing power, which 
must be ascertained if we would understand the real under the 
nominal value. This equivalence must be kept in mind, and be as 
well ascertained as may be, in an inquiry into the relative rates of 
wages paid at different periods. 

For our purposes we must depend upon the authorities in the 
statistics of labor. As it would only burden the examination to 
carry it back into the time of feudalism in Europe, or even to the 
transition from bondage into the modern condition of civil freedom 
of the working people, we shall take the seventeenth century for our 
starting point, and for the facts of that date, we may with great con- 
fidence rely upon Mr., afterwards Lord, Macaulay. He fixes four 
shillings a week, without food, as the average agricultural wages, 
at any time between the Restoration (A. D. 1660) and the Revo- 
lution (1688). In 1685 the Justices of Warwickshire, under 
authority of an act of Elizabeth, fixed the wages of the common 
agricultural laborer, during the spring and summer, at four shillings 
a week, without food, and at three and sixpence for the fall and 
winter months. In the south of England the rates were a little 
higher, and about the centre and near the borders of Scotland some- 
thing lower. In the county of Essex and the vicinity of London, 
the Justices allowed six shillings in winter, and seven in summer, 
for the year 1661, which our author says was the highest remunera- 
tion in a period of twenty years, but it happened that in that year 
the necessaries of life were immoderately dear. Wheat was at 
seventy shillings the quarter* (eight bushels), which he adds, would 
even in 1848 be considered as almost a famine price. 

The pay of workmen employed in manufactures is always higher 
than that of tillers of the soil. In 1680, a member of the House of 
Commons said that " the high wages paid in England make it im- 
possible for the products of the English looms to compete with those 
of India. An English mechanic, he said, instead of slaving like a 
native of Bengal for a piece of copper, exacts a shilling a day. It 

* The average of the monthly j^rices for 15 years, 1846-1860, was 53s. 8id. 
" " " " 9 " 1857-1865, " 48s. U. 



92 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

is true he often works for less, but this sum is his demand." Mr. 
Macaulay, from all the evidence, concludes that, " in the generation 
which preceded the Revolution (1G88), a workman employed in the 
great staple (woolens) manufacture of England thought himself 
fairly paid if he gained six shillings a week." 

Coming down to a later period we find, by the register of the 
Greenwich Hospital, that the wages of such mechanics as carpenters, 
bricklayers, and plumbers, had more than doubled in one hundred 
and twelve years, (from 1730 to 1842), — rising very regularly 
from 2s. 6'7. per day, to 5s. 8d., (McCulloch's Com. Diet., p. 1061). 

Thus it appears by this last quoted author (whose doctrines as 
an economist, as we have given them in a former chapter, were 
directlv hostile to his facts as a statistician), that the wages of all 
labor estimated in money were in 1730 not quite half of what they 
were in 1842. Meat was cheaper, in money, it is true, but hun- 
dreds of thousands of families scarcely knew the taste of it, "Wheat, 
as early as the last twelve years of Charles II. (1672-1685), 
averaged fifty shillings per quarter, and during a like period one 
hundred and seventy years later (1843-1855), it was about the 
same price. But the difi"erence, in fact, is, that bread such as is now 
ffiven to the inmates of a British workhouse, was seldom seen even 
on the table of a yeoman or a shop-keeper. The great majority of 
the nation lived almost entirely on rye, barley, and oats. (Macaulay's 
Hist. Eng., vol. 1, chap, iii.) 

Here, then, we see that in England, whose limited territory makes 
her dependent upon foreign countries for full one-fifth of her food, 
in this prime necessary of life, the wages of labor have risen largely 
above the prices of the required supply, while in all other things 
necessary to ordinary comfort, prices have gone down immensely, 
bringing such commodities as are the produce of tropical countries, 
and of the mines and manufxctures of the country, within the pur- 
chase of the laborer in proportionate abundance. Sufiieient proof of 
this is found in the fact that the prices of all the manifold exports 
of Great Britain declined sixty per cent in thirty-five years, from the 
year 1817 to 1852 ; that is, of all the articles of British and Irish 
produce now exported to foreign countries, comprised under a hun- 
dred general heads or classes in the export entries, and of a thou- 
sand specific varieties, one dollar will now purchase as much as two 
dollars and a half would in the year 1817. Cottons only are ex- 



LAW or WAGES. 93 

cepted, and even these are twenty-five per cent lower than in 1817, 
and will take rank in reduction of price again when the cotton 
supply of our Southern States shall be restored to its state before 
our civil war. 

Now, if the wages of such a country as England doubled in 
money in one hundred and twelve years, and wheat and all other 
breadstufFs remained at about the same price, while only flesh meats 
became dearer, and all the multiform products of the mining, manu- 
facturing, and mechanic arts fell sixty per cent in the last thirty-five 
years of the period, and all the products of tropical climates greatly 
decreased in price also, is it not fully established that labor rises in 
market value in the ratio that productiveness increases and products 
abound ? 

Tried in the United States, where labor beyond the supply is in; 
demand, the rise of wages is proportionately greater than in coun-;'' 
tries not so favorably circumstanced. 

We shall not here insist upon the arithmetical precision of the 
statistics which must of necessity be employed, nor need we ; our 
aim is only to show conclusively that wages do rise in keeping with 
the profits yielded by labor combined with capital in the modern 
system of production, and in proportion to the joint productiveness. 
First, then, as the question stands in the United States, we have at 
least an approximate valuation of the elements of our problem in the 
census reports of 1850 and 1860. The latter being more accurate 
than the former, its data will be more particularly relied upon. 

The total products of manufactures in 1860 were valued at 
$1,885,861,676. The annual cost of labor was $378,878,266, 
which is twenty and one-tenth per cent of the value of the pro- 
ducts. The cost of the raw materials was $1,031,605,092, which 
leaves but $854,256,584, of which labor took forty-four and three- 
tenths per cent, leaving to capital fifty-five and seven-tenths per 
cent of the value of the products over the labor wages, to cover 
interest upon an investment of $1,009,855,715, interest of raw 
material until sale of the products, taxes, superintendence, losses 
upon sales, repairs, insurance, expenses, and net profits. 

The number of hands employed was one million, forty thousand 
three hundred and forty-nine males, and two hundred and seventy 
thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven females. The proportion 
of wages of males to females was ascertained in 1850 to be as nine 



94 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

to five. We have taken the same ratio here for the year 1860. 
This rule would distribute the wages of the year thus : aggregate 
wages of all males employed $330,996,917, which is $318.16 per 
annum averaged to each, or $1.02 for every working day (three 
hundred and twelve in the year). To the women, a total of 
$47,881,349, giving to each an average of $176.75 per annum, or 
fifty-seven cents per day. 

In the year 1850, according to the census, there were engaged 
in manufactures in the United States seven hundred and thirty-one 
thousand one hundred and thirty-seven males, and two hundred 
and twenty-five thousand nine hundred and twenty-two females. 
The total wages paid were $202,066,770 to the male operatives, 
which gave them an average of $276.37 per annum, $5.3l2 per 
week, and eighty-eight and six-tenths cents for each working day; 
to the women, $153.54 for the year; $2,951 per week, and forty- 
nine and one-fifth cents per day. Comparing these rates with 
those of 1860 we find that wages had increased fifteen and twelve- 
one-hundredths per cent in ten years, at which rate they would 
double in forty-seven years. Wages of skilled labor in England, 
as we have seen, stood at double after one hundred and twelve 
years. Our wealth grows now at the rate of eight and one-half 
per cent; British wealth at three and one-half per cent per annum. 
Here we have a remarkable correspondence. As forty-seven years 
is to three and a half, so is one hundred and fourteen years to 
eight and one-half. In other words, if English wages grow in 
the same proportion to the growth of English wealth, that wages 
in the United States keep to their increase of wealth, they should 
double in one hundred and thirteen years; we have just seen that 
they do in one hundred and fourteen years. This looks very like 
the eflPect of a universal law, that is, a law ruling the relation of 
the wages of skilled labor to the general loealth of the nation, but 
it is by no means the law of the relation of wages to the capital 
emploijiiKj labor in manufacturing industry. Here wages not only 
keep pace with the profits of capital, but gain upon those profits, 
at a rate of constant increase that will not be arrested until such 
advance shall be checked by reaching the point at which capital 
can yield no more of its profits to labor. Let us see whether we 
can find the facts that prove such a law in operation among the 
data afi"ordcd by our census reports : 



LAW OF WAGES. 95 

The wages paid in 1860, as already stated, were an advance of 
fifteen and twelve one-hundredtlis per cent over those of 1850, 
the aggregate increase amounting to $57,286,494. Did capital 
suffer the loss of this sum in reduction of its former profits ? Or, 
if it neither did or could do so, how was this fifty-seven and a 
quarter millions provided for ? The cost of material and wages in 
1850 was equal to seventy-seven and seven-tenths per cent of the 
value of the products, but in 1860 these items of expense fell to 
seventy-four and seventy-nine one-hundredths per cent of the total 
yield. This saving refunded to capital $54,830,464 of the advance 
of wages, and left a loss of only $2,456,030, which is but a fraction 
over one per cent of the product. Whence came this fifty-four and a 
quarter millions ? Not from an increased yield of the material, 
for curiously enough, the materials used in 1850 bore the proportion 
fifty-four and forty-seven one-hundredths per cent to the value of 
their products, and those of 1860 only two-tenths of one per cent 
more, or, we may say, exactly the same. 

The following tabular statement shows the sources of the fund 
supplied to meet the advance of the wages : 

In 1850. In 1860. Decrease. 

Labor took of the products 23.23 per cent. ..20.10 per cent. ..13. 86 per cent. 

Labor took of the enhanced \ 

value of products over cost I ...51.07 " ...44.35 " ....13.16 " 

of material ) 

Capital took of the enhanced "| Increase. 

value of the product over [■ ...48.93 " ...55.64 " ...13.71 " 

the cost of the material J 

Capital took of the enhanced ^ 

value of the products over I ...22.29 " ...25.20 " ...13.05 " 

cost of materials and wages. J 

The apparent loss of labor and gain of capital in their respective 
shares of the product shown by this table, very accurately provides 
for the actual advance of wages in 1860 (fifty-seven and one-quarter 
millions) out of the actual gain of capital (fifty-four and eight-tenths 
millions) iu the products, with the loss of the trivial difference 
before stated (two and four-tenths millions). This gain in products 
here set to the credit of capital, did not come out of an increased 
yield of the materials, nor could it have come out of the wages of 
labor, for these were greatly increased; it must, therefore, have 
resulted from improved machinery and methods of conversion sup- 



96 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

plied by capital, and at its expense. The sum, fifty-four and eight- 
tentlis uiillioDS, is equal to a fraction less than three per cent of 
the value of the products, and that amount of improvement in the 
apparatus and management of the manufactures of the nation in a 
decade is every way probable. That we put the credit to the right 
account is further supported by the fact that the wages bore the 
proportion of forty-one and forty-one one-huiulredths per cent to 
the cost of the materials used in 18.50, but in 18(30 fell to thirty- 
six and seventy-two one-hundredths. Thus forty-eight and one- 
third millions' worth of work at the rates of 1850 was transferred 
in 18G0 from human hands to machinery, and at the advanced 
rates of 1860 would amount to fifty-five and seven-tenths millions, or 
barely nine-tenths of a million more than the sum transferred to 
the credit of the capitalists who supplied the machinery. Subject 
to the inseparable errors of statistical data, so large and complex as 
ours, these results may be regarded as the exactest proofs that such 
subjects are capable of. 

The noteworthy results of this inquiry are these : the substitu- 
tion of artificial labor, in the form of steam or water force and 
machinery, for muscular toil, relieves the laborer of so much mere 
muscle force, which is low priced, and remits him to the higher 
styles of skill, which always command correspondingly higher rates 
of wages, which, in every way that concerns his advancement, is so 
much in his favor. Again ; machinery adds a rate of speed, and 
in many cases a degree of precision in the execution of manufac- 
turing processes which human hands cannot command, increasing 
the quantity and value of the products, and so increasing the fund 
from which wages must be paid ; which, under the operation of 
other laws ruling the case, insures him an increase of his distribu- 
tive share. 

These propositions on their face seem at first view paradoxical, 
but like other paradoxes, in abstract statement, opens up its essen- 
tial facts in the simplest forms of truth. 

We must get accustomed to look through the alarms of innova- 
tions that attend the progress of economical affairs. A wagon road 
displacing the pack-horse system of transportation across the Alle- 
ghenies, threatened destruction to the horse-breeders of the time. 
The railroads that followed, menaced a total loss of occupation to 
the same interest. What has followed these chancres ? Horses dis- 



LAW OF WAGES. 9T 

charged from this drudgery have been advanced to work requiring 
higher qualities, and, behold ! their numbers and individual value 
have been multiplied many times. In like manner, when a machine- 
is introduced that displaces nine in ten of the laborers before oc- 
cupied in the work to be done, it is hastily inferred that capital is 
dispensing more and more with human labor; yet all experience 
shows that wages rise, employment enlarges, and products cheapen' 
at the same time, and the benefit to the poor is in the aggregate 
much greater than to the rich ! Else why have the masses risen in 
condition, step by step, with all improvement in the agencies intro- 
duced into the modern industries ? 

Another result of the calculations here submitted remains to be 
noticed. We found by our figures that the capitalists in 1860 
received a trifle less from the enhanced value of the products over 
the cost of material and labor than the increase of the wages paid — 
the sum of S2, 456, 030. To this must be added the interest upon 
the increased capital employed ($482,646,522), and the interest 
running upon the increased value of the materials ($476,481,370), 
from the date of their purchase until the sale of their products, 
with whatever of other increased expenses the extension of the busi- 
ness added. These items cannot be calculated from any data at 
hand, but they must have aggregated at least fifty millions. 

Again comes the question, did the capitalists lose this estimated 
fifty millions, or suSer such an abatement of their former profits ? 
Let us for the purpose of trying this question, call the diiference 
between the cost of materials and the cost of labor together, and the 
value of the products, profits. It appears that such profits in 1850 
were equal to twenty-eight and seven-tenths per cent of the total 
yield, but in 1860 they rose to thirty-three per cent. The gain in 
amount is a trifle over eighty-one millions, and the fifty millions 
additional expense here estimated, would leave to capital a clear in- 
creased gain of thirty-one millions. 

Thus, on the basis "of the facts and figures here used, is demon- 
strated the increased yield to both capital and labor of improved 
methods of conversion in manufacturing, mining, and mechanical 
industry; labor gaining fifteen and twelve one-hundredths per cent 
upon its smaller principal in ten years, and the capitalist upon his 
greatly larger principal but five per cent. 

Mr. Carey's general statement of the law of distribution is thus 



98 QIESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

verified in one grand province of its operation. It may be found 
supported by the context with great amplitude of demonstration in 
his "Social Science," vol. iii.. p. l")t). We here condense his 
formula : '" "With the growth of wealth and numbers, the power of 
"combination increases with great increase in the productiveness of 
" labor, and in the power of accumulation — every step in that 
" direction being attended by decline in the power of the already 
^' existing capital to command the services of the laborer, and by 
*' the increase of power on the part of the latter to command the aid 
*'■ of capital." 

" The juojwrtion of the increased product of labor assigned to the 
" laborer tends, thus, steadily to increase, while that of the capitalist 
*' tends as regularly to decline. The (juuiiiifj/ assigned to both in- 
" creases — that of the laborer growing, however, far more rapidly 
^' than that retained by the capitalist." 

'• The tendency to equality is, therefore, in the direct ratio of the 
^' growth of wealth, and consequent productiveness of labor." 

"We cannot leave this discussion without calling attention to its 
highest and happiest result — the harmony of interests really sub- 
sisting and working toward the most beneficent issue, under the 
system of relations between capital and labor which are unhappily 
marked by so much hostility of the parties as the world still wit- 
nesses — the employer gaining larger profit from increase of the 
wages paid, and the laborer sharing in the product from the aid of 
capital cooperating, and on both sides, in proportion to all improve- 
ments in the processes attained, with the assurance that their pro- 
spective fortunes are under the government of the same law. 

Let us now look at the operation of this law as it rules among 
diflerent classes and conditions of laborers. That the wages of mm 
have doubled as reckoned in money in the United States since the 
general introduction of steam and modern machinery, say in the 
year 1814, will be readily admitted ; but it is equally true that the 
wages of women have tripled in the same time ; and this not alone 
by the transfer of thoir industry from the household to the factory, 
where capital directly aids its efficiency, but domestic service has 
received an equal increase of remuneration, as measured by the cir- 
culating medium. The reason of this is, that a rise in value in any 
branch of business nooessarily pulls up all related branches with it. 
It is plain enough that if a new demand is made for the labor of 



LAW OF WAGES. 99 

women, all are invited to accept its tempting oflFers, and those who 
remain in their accustomed engagements must be made to find their 
account in it. There is also a less obvious influence always at work 
which tends to level up all the members of a class toward the con- 
dition of the most favored. Opinion has much to do in fixing values 
in all things, and whatever people generally believe they must have 
for their work, they must get, if the employers can afi'ord it. Those 
who need the best service pay its higher price, and this becomes the 
standard of demand, and soon regulates the opinion and conscience 
of the pay-masters. 

But there is another reason why the lowest rank in earnings 
should rise ftister than those more advanced. The better part of 
any class of laborers always have received as high prices as the em- 
ployer can, or thinks he can at the time afford, and the rise of these 
will just keep pace with the rise in worth of their work, while those 
who formerly could command nothing, nor make any terms with 
those who gave them employment, when changed conditions come, 
and they begin to be wanted, shoot up more rapidly in proportion 
to the greater distance they must rise. For this very reason we 
may look for a greater celerity of progress among the lately emanci- 
pated negroes of the South, than we can expect for the people who 
made an earlier start — where the capital is small, accretions of the 
same value are a much larger per cent of increase, than where a 
little is added to a greater amount. The addition of one to two 
makes an increase of fifty per cent, the addition of one to a hun- 
dred is but one per cent. 

We are as nearly correct as the nature of the question admits of, 
in stating that the labor wages of artisans in the United States in- 
creased one hundred per cent in money value from the year 1814 to 
to 1860. We take the year 1814 for the first of the new era of 
manufacturing industry, because the power loom was first intro- 
duced at Waltham, Massachusetts, in that year, and steam began 
soon after to be generally applied in the various processes of produc- 
tion in the mechanic arts ; and for the further reason that, from and 
after that year the remarkable fall of prices is noticed in the reports 
of British exports in all the manufactures of the United King- 
dom ; and we take the year 1860 for our latest date, in order to 
avoid the general disturbance of our home markets by the war of 
the Rebellion, and by the suspension pf specie payuients at tbe close 



100 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

of the following year. Whoever will look over the lists of current 
prices of the principal commodities for any period of twenty or 
thirty or forty years within the present century, will be convinced 
that there are many causes of fluctuation, casual and temporary, 
which disturb his estimates of permanent and normal changes, and 
render the figures commonly quoted by partisans of conflicting 
theories so liable to yield support to either side of any question for 
which they are appealed to for confirmation. The statistics, by skill 
or blunder in selection of dates and periods, may be manipulated 
so as to prove anything that the uncaudid or the incapable may 
choose to demonstrate. Indeed, nothing but the most general and 
the most comprehensive views derived from the records deserve reli- 
ance. Periods worthy to be examined for instruction, or quoted for 
proofs, ought to be large enough to embrace all the changes which 
time and chance usually can considerably modify, in order that the 
fluctuations of rise and fall may be embraced in all their bearings 
upon the question at issue. 

For instance : common English bar iron in England varied 
from £8 per ton in 1822 to £15 in 1825 ; from £5 lOs. in 1832 to 
£10 15s. in 1836; from £4 ICs. in 1848 to £10 in 1845; and, from 
£0 lO.s. in 1847 to £5 5,s. in 1849. In such an up-and-down flut- 
ter as this, specialties run into contradictions, and deductions are 
confused and false. But such facts as these broader ones are not 
doubtful : in 1783 mineral coal was substituted for charcoal in the 
manufacture of bar iron, and in the following year the rolling mill 
was invented. Previously, for many years, the price of iron had 
been steady at from £17 to £18 per too. In 1829 the hot blast 
was used, effecting a great saving in fuel, and the price went dowa 
to £7 10*'. for the next sis years; and a succession of improve- 
ments through the ensuing fifteen years marks the tendency down- 
ward by rates running as low as £7 5.s. in the first half of the 
period, and an average of £G in the closing year 1850. 

Iron has been, perhaps, subject to greater and more rapid vicis- 
situdes of price than any other article, for the reason that it was 
put under constantly increasing protective duties by the policy of 
England from 1787 (about the date of the great improvement in its 
manufacture) until 182G. A part of this period of near forty years, 
its most important forms were prohibited in terms, and the duty 
rising through the period to full fifty per cent upon the kinds 



LAW OF WAGES. 101 

admitted, was in effect quite as prohibitory. After safety from 
all foreign competition was secured its price was, and is to the 
present day, still more wildly variable under the policy of holding 
its foreign markets by gorging them at losing rates, and recovering 
the losses again by enormous changes in price, when, and as long 
as it could, hold them monopolized. 

But all commodities are influenced more or less by the policy of 
the mercantile and manufacturing nations. Such manufactures as 
depend for their raw materials upon the seasons^ as they variably 
aff'ect the agricultural products used ; and, again, by the 66*601 of 
the seasons upon the food required by laborers ; and, again, by 
wars, periods of mercantile speculation, and the condition of the 
currency — all these causes play upon prices, and vary them from 
the lowest possibilities of the producer, to the highest prices that 
the consumer can bear. 

For all these reasons we would avoid the incertitude, as well as 
the imposture of the arithmetic of market statistics, by choosing 
our data from the broadest and safest groups of facts; and, while 
we do not refuse the assistance and the guidance of such records, 
•carefully examined and interpreted, we resort with still more confi- 
dence to the clearer and truer experiences which get no record 
-except in general observation. 

"VVe have said that women's wages have risen threefold in money 
price since 1814. It will be recollected that fifty years ago house 
service did not command more than sixty-two and a half cents per 
week, and rose in the average to at least $1.75 in 1860. To show 
the value of these prices, respectively, we submit the following 
statement of the market values, and the quantities of certain 
articles of clothing required, which these diff"erent amounts of 
wages would command : 

Money Wages in 1814, 62i cents. Money Wages in 1860, $1.75. 

1 yard of dimity at 62* cents 7 yards at 25 cents. 

2 " sheeting " 31i " 14 " 12i " 

2i " calico " 25 " 14 " 12^ " 

2i " shirting " 25 " 17i " 10 " 

Other articles of dress, if not equally, had at least very greatly 
fallen in the market. With the price of food and lodging she was 
not concerned; in any way, except as to quality, which, with other 
things, was constantly improving. In general terms, we will be 



102 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

sustained by the memories that cover the whole period of this great 
change, in saying that the hired women reached in these fifty years 
enjoyments that would have cost them at least six times the amount 
of their wages at the beginning of the period. 

With respect to the advance in the real wages of men, it is to be 
remarked that the doubling of their remuneration gives them at 
least a fourfold command of all that part of their consumption 
which has undergone the improved methods of production. Four- 
fold is not enough to allow when we recollect that all the multiform 
productions of British industry have fallen sixty per cent, which 
increases the purchasing power of the same money two and a 
half times, and the wages being doubled, we have a fivefold pur- 
chasing power as to these items. Some other indispensable things 
he has now for nothing, and the best of them at rates that put even 
the lowest rank of self-supporting people on a level with the wealth- 
iest of fifty years ago. He has these things in a free system of 
common schools ; in the street accommodations of light, and police 
security; in travel and transportation, cheapened down to his means; 
in the newspapers, periodicals, and books which formerly only the 
wealthy class could well afford ; in the accessibility of other means 
of instruction, refinement, and enjoyment, not forgetting the general 
respect and its advantages, which so great an improvement in per- 
sonal conditions insures. 

Thus much as a hint, for it falls very short of an array, of the 
benefits brought to every man by the joint achievements of labor, 
capital, skill, and science in the last half century. 

The proportion of food to all necessaries other than house rent, 
is, of course, a variable quantity, but it is safe to say that under the 
normal rates of the period previous to 1860, it did not overpass the 
cost of these, and that such food as was used in 1811 was as costly 
then as the better supply of the later date. The groceries of tropi- 
cal climates had greatly declined in price ; so much so, that tea and 
cofiee had com^ into universal use ; sugar had fallen at least fifteen 
per cent; flesh meats increased, perhaps, twenty-five per cent; vege- 
tables, generally; and flour fluctuating considerably, but hovering 
abojit the same rates at the beginning and end of the period. If 
this is correct as to food, that is, if the improved food cost no more 
in the aggregate than the inferior supply of fifty years ago, that 
portion of the wages which must be so applied, being doubled be- 



LAW OF WAGES. 103 

tween the dates assumed, was, in eflfect, reduced to one half the 
real expenditure, or allowed a double indulgence. Food in the con- 
sumption of the tolerably circumstanced artisan is not the half of 
his consumption of commodities; therefore, for more than half his 
wants he has a fivefold provision in his enhanced real wages, and 
in respect to food, twofold. These surpluses leave a very large 
margin beyond the increase of his house rent. 

The calculation would stand thus : as against the purchasino- 
power of wages in 1814, that of 1860 was, after reducing the other 
items equally to make up for the probable doubling of his rent — 

$50 worth of food in 1814 $ 85 47 worth in 1860. 

50 worth of other commodities in 1814... 114 53 " " 

58 house rent in 1814, 110 00 " " 

$158 annual wages $316 00 annual wages. 

This division of the excess of the wages applied to food and other 
commodities is not given as the determinate distribution that would 
be made of it. The two classes (food and other commodities) are 
here put at equal sums — fifty dollars each in 1814, and probably 
the necessity of the case arising out of the limits of the fund would 
oblige as great an expenditure for food, at the expense of a severe 
economy in clothing and the like things, but the greater stock of 
wages, ($200 against $100), and the greatly less cost of textile 
fabrics and other manufactures in 1860 would allow $100 for food, 
and the other hundred, as it now purchases two and a half times the 
quantity afforded by $50 in 1814, would permit expenditure in this 
direction to be pushed to this limit in this class of commodities. 
The ratio of appropriation would be a matter of choice, or would 
be determined by circumstances. We are only concerned to show 
that the wages of 1860 provide a surplus of $100 over those of 
1814. If this is clear, then, our point is made, that the support- 
ing or purchasing power of wages doubled in forty-six years as to 
all things except house rent, and including house rent, increased in 
real value sixty-three and one-third per cent. 

We have said that wages double in money price once in forty- 
seven years. But in real value, when surcharged with the increas- 
ing value of land, and of its rent, it will take fifty-five years to 
double, at the rate of change in prices of rent, of commodities and 
labor, during the last half century. All of which accords with 



104 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

the primary propositions : — wages are the index of productiveness, 
the former enhancing, by a law of the subjects, with the increase 
of the latter; and, the other general principle, that in progressive 
communities nothing can normally increase in value but land and 
labor. 

It will be observed by those who have a turn for the figures of 
statistics, and especially by those who innocently imagine that 
arithmetic gives its own exactitude to the measure and meaning of 
the facts to which it is so applied, that we have spoken of the 
doubling of American money wages as requiring a period of forty- 
six years when estimating their purchasing power over commodi- 
ties other than food and lodging in the years 1814 and 1800; and, 
that we extend the period to forty-seven years, when we estimate 
the period of duplication by the rate of their rise in the decade 
1850-00. 

We let these differences stand. It would be ea.sy to force a com- 
promise agreement, and deliver a definite and, perhaps, even a more 
exact result. The data are in their nature elastic enough to admit 
of equalization ; but the inexpert would only be deceived into an 
undue confidence in the cipherings of political economy. It is im- 
possible to decide whether 1813, 1814, 1818, or 1820 marks the 
effective beginning of the new era in manufacturing productive- 
ness. Nothing so sudden ever takes place, all over the civilized 
world, as will fix the precise year when some grand epoch in discovery 
gets itself realized in business affairs. We have taken — as we must 
take, some definite date — the year 1814 for the point of departure 
for the reason that then the products of British industry commenced 
that permanent drift of cheapening which has since gone forward 
with great uniformity in spite of all disturbing influences, until the 
increase of converting skill and agencies have reduced the average 
price full sixty per cent. If the decided change began a little 
later in the United States, it has progressed proportionably faster 
in the whole compass of the period. 

Further to clear up the data adopted, it should be seen that the 
average expenditure of artisans, fixed for the year 1814, is exposed 
to cross-questioning from various positions which critics may as- 
sume. One hundred and fifty-eight dollars wages per annum is an 
average, or is intended for an average, only; though based upon 
the ofl&cial reports of the census-takers of the time; and, as an 



1 



LAW or WAGES. 105 

average, will accord with the observation or experience of very few 
individuals. The same things are true of the average three hun- 
dred and sixteen dollars for the year 1860. Yet objections, how- 
ever well taken to the specific sums allowed, are nothing against 
the deductions drawn from them. Though they be wrong in 
amounts, they are very probably right in proportion to each other, 
and rectification of such amounts will not affect the percentage of 
increase, which is the thing required in this discussion. 

The distribution of the wages among the classes of necessary ex- 
penditure is more embarrassing, and more important, in reaching 
the actual result. Food is much cheaper in some parts of the 
United States than in others, while manufactures are not materially 
different in price. The proportions of expenditure upon these 
classes of commodities must, therefore, vary accordingly; and this 
will affect the real value of wages. Again : even in the same place, 
and at the same prices, the circumstances and the taste of the 
laborers will induce a various relative proportion' of expenditure 
upon them, and so produce a difference of surplus to meet the 
enhanced charge of rent. 

Moreover, the sums or amounts of annual wages allowed for both 
periods are obviously too low, and this must be rectified to the cases 
before a just judgment can be formed. Nevertheless the point to 
be met remains unaffected — the positive increase of wages, and that 
they increase in the ratio of the general increase of the national 
wealth, but much more rapidly than the profits of capital employ- 
ing labor in the manufacturing, mining and mechanic arts; and at 
various rates in other indastries, with a tendency in all branches to 
a fair equality of dividend in the fruits of labor and capital com- 
bined. Under these modifications the proposition that wages are 
the index of productiveness, is made good. 

8 



CHAPTER IX. 

MONEY AND ITS FUNCTIONS — AS AN EXCHANGER OF VALUES. 

Money and its function as an exchanger of values : Production defined. — 
Nature's forces in the mastery of natural substances. — Instruments employed in 
effecting changes of form and place. — Transportation, difficulties, and cost of; 
social effects: improvement of in proportion to increase of population and 
wealth. — Improvement in distribution of products ; freight the impediment. — 
Transportation and conversion improve pari passu. — Drudgery and slavery. — 
Emancipation by machinery. — Freedom of exchange and freedom of man. — 
India enslaved by cost of freight. — Abridgment of transportation and elimina- 
tion of middle-men. — Simple barter the type of a true commerce. — A common 
representative of values required to remove impediments. — Money, the medium 
of excaanges. — Kinds of money. — The precious metals ; their befitting quali- 
ties. — Change of exchange value in long periods, but still the best security for 
creditors, although it lessens the value of debts. — Small coins. — Money as an 
agent of transportation. — Money not a standard of value ; only a conventional 
standard of payment. — Why. — Great change of market value in long periods. — 
Estimates ditfijult. — Prices two centuries ago. and change of nominal value in 
coins. — Reduced value since the eleventh century, reduced cost of production 
in the period. — Exchange value of silver eighteen hundred years ago. — A com- 
mon and permanent standard of values impossible. — The labor cost of precious 
metals not ascertainable: causes specially affecting cost of mining them. — 
Equivalence of value in the supply of money and totality of things in ex- 
change, fallacious. — False analogy to paper money — the differences. — Excess of 
paper money explodes it as a currency. — Xo increase of coin lessens its ex- 
change value. — Prices of other things decline under its increase — the reverse 
of its supposed effect. — The law of "supply and demand" at fault here. — 
Coin in exchange is payment : paper money only a promise to pay. — The 
one an existing real value; the other an anticipation of values. — Business 
alarms depreciate paper, but appreciate metallic money. — Value of coin 
fluctuates only under changes in cost of production. — Increase in Europe, in 
three centuries, thirtyfold. — Coinage in England before and after 1850 — in the 
United States seven times greater. — Xo depreciation under so vast and rapid 
an increase. — Adam Smith's testimony. — Demand not fixed independently; 
relation to supplj' wanting. — Money not consumed ; consumption of the things 
it buys quite immeasurable. — Outlets for its use. — Thousands of millions of 
commodities ready to absorb hundreds of millions of added money. — Cash 
payments in lieu of credit. — Not the value of money, but the credit system 
affected by its influx. — The use of money supphmted by other means of pay- 
106 



MONEY AS AN EXCHANGER OF VALUES. 107 

ment. — Money of account. — Clearing houses pay by offset. — New York banks 
thus settle ninety-five per cent of their mutual claims. — Money only needed to 
pay profits. — Business in England done with less money, in inverse proportion 
to values in exchange. — Rapidity of circulation does not explain the fact. 

The power of man over matter is limited to change of form and 
change of place. Both these changes are necessary, in various 
degrees, and almo-st universally, in his use of the primitive sub- 
stances which nature furnishes for his service. Change of form, 
including change of properties, and change of place, are both 
included in the word production. Ore or coal or lime delivered 
at the pit's mouth, are produced. The ore and coal and lime being 
put through the furnace, iron, by change of form, is produced. 
The iron transported to a distant market is there, by change of 
place, produced. By the change of form, utility is subserved ; by 
the change of place, use is effected. 

Production, whether in form or place; looks to exchange of values 
for all marketable commodities beyond the consumption of the 
producers. The whole life of man is a round of exchanges — between 
his body and the elements of subsistence — between the individual 
and his kind, in services moral; mental, and material, in their 
varied ministries. 

McXn compels nature into service, for the most part, by the use of 
power-multiplying instruments, thus employing the forces of nature 
in one form against her resistance in another. Mind is qualified for 
its proper sovereignty by its power of converting some of the natural 
agencies into siyjer-natural forces, and all of them by ingenuity of 
application into controlling forces. 

The instruments employed in effecting changes of form are such 
as ploughs, mills, furnaces, steam engines, and generally, 9,11 mechan- 
ical and chemical agencies of which he has the mastery. The in- 
struments of transportation are such as horses, wagons, rail car- 
riages, ships, currents of water, air, and electricity. 

When these have performed their offices the producers are ready 
for exchanges of values, or, in more suggestive terms, exchange of 
services, as these are embodied in their commodities. 

In the earlier and ruder stages of commerce the change of place 
is generally the greater part of the cost of production. Navigable 
waters abridge the expense of transportation, but inland or overland 
carriage absorbs nearly the whole prime value, or doubles the cost of 



108 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

the product. Improvement and extension of navigation in this state 
of trade makes princes of merchants, as in ancient Tyre, and in 
middle age Venice and Genoa, and producer and consumer are alike 
kept poor. Monopolj' of transportation and of exchange have the 
Bame mischievous tendency in the most advanced states of society. 

The natural process of improvement follows increase of popula- 
tion and wealth. The foot-path widens into a carriage road; then it 
is graded and paved, and finally, iron tramways diminish friction, 
and the locomotive engine replaces the six-horse team as it had 
supplanted the pack-horse. Now the transporter takes less and the 
producer gets more of the price given by the consumer for the 
articles produced at market. It must not be forgotten, however, 
that the cost of carriage ever remains so much dead loss to the 
prime producer, and an equivalent tax upon the consumer. Freight 
is the thing to be diminished, and, wherever it can be, entirely 
abolished, in the progressive improvement of necessary exchanges. 

There is a corresponding progress to be eflfected in the work of 
changing the forms of things for use, and these two changes are 
found going forward in a near approach to equal measure. In the 
savage state the quantity of labor required to convert grain into 
bread is very great — it means drudgery and enslavement. The 
stone pestle and mortar must give way to the flouring mill; the 
hand-wheel and loom to the spinning-jenny and power-loom, and at 
last, hammers, saws, and files to steam-driven rollers, lathes, saws, 
and chisels. Labor must be saved in manufacturing and forward- 
ing — in change of form and of place. Capital accumulated must 
work for those who have worked for it. The reluctant natural 
agents must be yoked to machinery in production, in relief of toil 
and in the elevation of labor in uses and benefits. Society must 
be organized; its members must be so related in industry and in 
commerce, that all impediments to the freest, cheapest, directest 
po.ssible. exchange of services may be removed. 

The poverty of India, once the leading manufacturing people of 
the earth, is explained by the fact that the policy of British rule 
forces its people to send their cotton wool five thousand miles 
direct, or more than twice as far by the Cape of Good Hope to 
find the spindle, and to bring the cloth all the way back again, for 
such market as it may find at Bombay, Calcutta, or Delhi, at the 
foot of the Himalaya Mountains. 



MONEY AS AN EXCHANGER OF VALUES. 109 

The gains of a close neighborhood of the prime producer and 
consumer are larger, greatly larger, than those to be expected from 
the greatest possible improvement of roads and conveyances; for 
closeness, pro tanto, abolishes transportation and eliminates the 
middle-man, and with him, his frauds and profits. It is best even 
in the rude stage of commerce in which services are exchanged 
through their representative commodities, without the intervention 
of the merchant class. 

This simple barter is the type of a true commerce, for it is the 
very thing to be attained ; and the best method of effecting such, 
exchange is the aim, and remains the hope of the highest civilization. 

The natural hindrance to this, the purest and best form of ex- 
change, is that, the man who has blankets to spare may not want 
the venison or furs which the hunter must buy them with • and so 
of the miller, the blacksmith, tailor, doctor, lawyer, and preacher. 
They cannot take exactly the thing, or the exact quantity of the 
thing, which the customer has to give in exchange. Somebody 
else, however, wants the venison or furs, which the hunter offers 
for the cloth, cutlery, or other commodity or service, required; and 
if all the producers could be brought together, in fact, as at a fair, 
or in effect, by some other means, more frequently and conveniently, 
the needed exchanges could be made to the mutual advantage of 
all the parties. If some representative of values, and of all values, 
capable of fitting itself in amount to all desired exchanges, and 
always, and for all purposes, commanding them, the legitimate ends 
of commerce would be accom.plished by such an instrument, and it 
would be an instrument of association as well as of barter. 

This predicament instantly suggests the familiar medium which 
we call MONEY — money in all the senses in which the word is em- 
ployed — coined metals; representative paper money; money of 
account, or credit money of all kinds, answering the purpose, and 
each in turn better than the other, in circumstances specially 
adapted to its use. 

The necessity of such a representative of values in the business 
of exchange is shown by the fact that the North American Indians 
adopted beads, made of small and variously-colored shells; Africans 
and East Indians still use shells, called cowries ; the ancient Romans 
employed cattle, and bars of copper, and the Spartans, iron. All 
these were money, as real as the precious metals in use elsewhere; 



110 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

for they passed at their labor cost and commauded all other com- 
modities in exchange in the communities using them as a circulation. 
They were just as much a measure of values, and perhaps not less 
constant in their own exchange value. 

The necessity for some common medium of exchange is obvious. 
That its service, and its influence upon society is not confined to its 
convenience in barter we shall see as we advance. For the present 
we stop to consider the eminent fitness of the precious metals to 
supply the requirements of commerce in the range of exchanges to 
which they are adapted. 

1st. Their scarcity and high cost of production has the eflfect of 
compacting large value in a small compass and light weight, com- 
pared with other substances anywise adapted to such use. Precious 
stones greatly excel them in these qualities, but in others are 
altogether unfit for currency. Gold and silver have also capabili- 
ties of storage and concealment which are great advantages added 
to their portableness. 

2d. They have a certain approach to constancy of value, for their 
cost of production does not vary very much during the periods that 
private contracts for payment usually run. In long leases, carrying 
a money rent, and in national funds, particularly such as the Eng- 
lish consols, standing for nearly two centuries, the pound sterling 
loses very largely its original correspondence to a fixed weight of 
pure gold or silver; but this objection is relieved by two good con- 
siderations : the value of all other commodities of the market 
diminish much more rapidly; and, national debts and long-lease 
rents and annuities have no equitable claim to an invariable exchange 
value more than other things. Society cannot be asked to insure a 
permanency of value for debts that does not and cannot attach to 
any other property. As coin grows cheaper the burden of debt 
grows lighter, which is so far a remedy for the evil to the debtor, 
and is no injustice in the workings of Providence upon the interests 
of the creditor, who, in such case, and so far as he is a creditor, is 
simply a sleeping partner in the world's business; and, as he sup- 
plies none of its current industry, and takes none of its risks, or of 
the risks of any other form of capital invested, he cannot expect to 
be provided or cared for by the system which governs the business 
of the workiug generations of men. Moreover, the change in the 



MONEY AS AN EXCHANGER OF VALUES. Ill 

value of any other medium of payment, except land and labor, would 
be incalculably greater. 

Bd. The precious metals are, in a certain sense, indestructible, los- 
ing nothing by rust or other waste, except wear, from which they 
are sufficiently well defended by alloys of more durable metals. 

4th. Their divisibility into very small portions, and their capa- 
bility of reunion or restoration to larger bulks and values without 
loss, rank among the best of theii' intrinsic qualities. This point is 
made very clear when small coins are withdrawn from circulation 
by a suspension of specie payments. The lack of one, two, five and 
ten-cent pieces is a greater inconvenience than the absence of ten- 
dollar pieces or ten-dollar notes, or any large denominations of cur- 
rent money. Bankers' checks or drafts would answer for the pay- 
ment of large sums, but there is no acceptable substitute for small 
money in daily and hourly purchases by the great mass of the people. 

For a three-cent piece we obtain a required share of the service 
of thousands of people who build, equip, and run our railroads, in 
the carriage of our letters ; and for a less piece or sum we have a 
fraction of the labor of the hundreds that produce the daily news- 
paper — these infinitesimal portions of the great agent, spread by 
minute division and "they operate unspent." 

5th. These metals acting as money, may very well be classed 
among the instruments of exchange, with wagons, rail-cars, and 
ships, for they in effect transfer the property in things, and thus 
bring the things themselves to the consumer to an extent that dis- 
penses with the transportation of manifold the quantity of the things 
which otherwise must be carried from place to place. The man who 
has wheat to give for iron, need not send it to the forge and bring 
the iron back, he can convert it into money and buy his iron at the 
nearest store ; and so of a thousand other things, for which the whole 
circuit of travel and transportation would have to be traversed for 
the supply of a hundred wants a day, but for the service of this 
greatest of all exchangers. 

6th. By virtue of their intrinsic value they pay, not promise to 
pay, all international balances of trade. 

7th. They are capable of receiving and retaining such stamps, 
engravings, and impressions as readily and truly certify their value 
at sight, without chemical tests or incessant weighing. Something 
of their real value is in these qualities, just as paper in quires and 



112 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

reams, cloth in pieces of determinate length, and flour in barrels of 
settled weight, are worth more than without the forms of packages 
and ascertained quantities; provided, always, that governments 
honestly fix the legal quality and quantity at their real value. 

All experience proves that no other substance, having in itself 
equivalence of value, possesses at the same time so many qualities 
of a good medium of exchange for universal circulation, as are 
found in gold and silver. It is to be noted, however, that the 
precious metals, in any condition, whether estimated by weight or 
accepted at legal-tender value, are not, in a strict sense, either 
a permanent standard or measure of the value of other things. 
They are only a conventional standard of payment. At fixed rates 
they cannot measure the natural price of commodities whose labor 
cost is varying every day ; and they are not any truer equivalents 
of long postponed payments of debt. Such standard or measure 
they cannot be, so long as their own cost of production is change- 
able. They have not the measure permanency of the yard-stick or 
pound-weight, which are measures and standards, simply because 
they do not themselves enter into the act of exchange — the pound- 
weight does not pass to the purchaser of the commodity which it 
measures, but gold and silver are the things exchanged for the 
things whose value they are at the same time used to measure. In 
considerable periods of time their value varies so greatly that the re- 
duction is one of the most difiicult undertakings of accountants and 
historians. Writers usually put the intrinsic value of these metals, 
as measured by their purchasing power, in the reign of Henry the 
Eighth of England, or about three centuries ago (A. D. 1.509- 
1547) at twelve times greater than now. But for want of a stand- 
ard to measure the intrinsic value or labor cost of the metals them- 
selves, there is no proof of any tolerable exactness in the estimates 
that are made, even by the most cap'able persons, of the change of 
value of an ounce of gold or silver after the lapse of centuries. 
And, if it is difficult for long periods, the rate of the process from 
day to day or year to year is no less so, though of less moment. 

The price of horses in England in the year 1696 Mr, Macaulay 
puts at fifty shillings. The pound of silver was at that time coined 
into sixty-two shillings, now into sixty-six shillings, so that fifty 
shillings then contained within a fraction of as much silver of the 
same fineness as fifty-three and one-quarter shillings now, which 



MONEY AS AN EXCHANGER OP VALUES. 113 

gives US the average price of horses in England one hundred and 
seventy-four years ago as the equivalent of SI 2. 92 in American 
gold in 1870. The horses of that day, however, were not really 
worth, and would not be worth more than half the price of English 
horses now, if so much. This estimate would put the comparative 
average value of horses now in England at but little more than 
twenty-five dollars in the money of 1696. 

If the change be pursued still further back, we find that in the 
year 1066 the Tower pound of silver was coined into twenty shil- 
lings, equal to eighteen and three-quarter shillings of the Troy pound 
adopted in 1.527. and, that thereafter the same quantity, or Troy 
pound, underwent the following striking changes : In 1527, forty 
shillings; in 1553, sixty shillings; in 1600, sixty-two shillings; in 
1816, sixty-sis shillings. Here we have the legal tender and ex- 
change value of silver increased to more than double in five centu- 
ries, and three and a half times in eight centuries; the real value, 
or the labor cost of production, declining, if not regularly through 
the whole period, at least very greatly in those eight hundred years, 
and still more and more rapidly within the last twenty years. 

Groing still farther back into the past, a still greater change in 
the money value of silver may be safely inferred. The Disciples 
estimated the value of bread that would suffice for one meal for five 
thousand hungry people in the wilderness of Judea, eighteen hun- 
dred years ago, at two hundred pence (Mark vi., 37). The Roman 
penny, then and there in circulation, was equal in quantity of silver 
to seven and a half pence sterling now, or about fifteen cents of 
American money. Two hundred pence were therefore equal to 
thirty dollars. This is an allowance of just three-fifths of one cent 
for the bread of each person. It would probably cost thirty cents a 
head to supply such hungry men now. If so, money has only one- 
fiftieth of its purchasing power after the lapse of eighteen centuries. 
But there are no means of calculating the relative commercial value 
of gold and silver at any distances of time, either long or short, be- 
cause in the intervals all other values are undergoing changes which 
are at once fluctuating and incapable of measure. The attempt is 
like measuring a flying cloud on a windy day with an elastic string ; 
yet, one can be sure without such a standard^ that the day is more 
cloudy than a clear one. 

The general fact is indisputable that silver and gold have grown 



114 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

several times cheaper intrinsically than they were before the dis- 
covery of America by Columbus ; and it is clear that they must have 
cheapened materially since the mines of California and Australia 
were opened — not because of their greater abundance in use, but 
from the reduced labor cost of their production. Yet this fact does 
not even help to determine their purchasing power now, as compared 
with three hundred years ago ; because, in all that period, land and 
labor have been enhancing in value faster as measured by them, 
than the metals have been declining in cost of production; and 
manufactures have been at the same time cheapening certainly very 
much faster than they possibly could, for they are not equally under 
the power of cheapening processes of production with the commodi- 
ties made of the useful minerals and of the raw materials of textile 
fabrics. 

As we insist that what we call the labor cost of these metals settles 
their commercial value, might an estimate be made with approxi- 
mate results from such data as the business of production affords ? 
Here again great difficulties, and equally great uncertainties are en- 
countered. Gold and silver mining is now marked by all the char- 
acters of gambling, except its fraudulent intention. It is in the 
main a desperate game. The risks of loss and the hopes of gain 
engender a recklessness that belongs not so much to an industry as 
to a speculation, dependent upon the incalculable changes of fortune. 
Success in discovery and yield must compensate for the labor in 
vain which so often goes before, and is always likely to follow. The 
expense of machinery and water-supply, the varying cost of pro- 
visions, and the capriciousness of the workmen under the constant 
seductions of better luck in promise, and other influences, in char- 
acter with the wild speculative spirit of the enterprise, altogether 
put calculation at defiance. Such is the unsteadiness of the whole 
business that no one can calculate upon compensation or profits 
except the brokers in the Pacific coast cities and metropolitan money 
markets of the Atlantic coasts in Europe and America. The labor 
cost of this intractable subject is as difficult as its exchange value in 
the ever varying markets in which it plays the go-between of protean- 
priced commodities. 

There is yet another way of vaguely estimating or imagining the 
value of the precious metals. This is by the supposed effect of 
their changes of quantity, in use. This idea rests upon an assumed 



MONEY AS AN EXCHANGER OF VALUES. 115 

equivalence of the money in circulation to the whole value of the 
commodities in exchange; an assumption utterly unwarranted, as 
we shall presently see. The doctrine, or notion, that an increase of 
quantity must diminish value in these metals, helps itself to some- 
thing mistaken for proof, in a supposed analogy to the workings of 
paper money. It is not questioned that paper money is cheapened 
by its abundance and depreciated by its excess. But if this were 
so, and the measure were accurate^ there is this grand difference 
between the two currencies : the value of paper money bears refer- 
ence to its redeemability, or convertibility into coin. Gold and 
silver have no such dependency. They are not in the category of 
credit. They are not convertible or redeemable in any other value 
upon which their own depends. We have had several experiences 
of excess of paper money in the United States, and it appears that, 
whenever its circulation exceeded the steady -going amount as much 
as twenty-five per cent, an explosion resulted. Now we need not say 
that any supposable increase in metallic money would not utterly 
destroy its value as money, and we may very properly and perti- 
nently point to the fact that the whole increase of coin money be- 
tween the years 1850 and 1860, which could not be less than 
double the amount in use at the beginning of the period, did not 
put up the aggregate market price of the whole range of commodi- 
ties in our markets. On the contrary, the price of thirty out of 
sixty articles reported in New York, declined through a range of 
principal items in the list, from forty-four to twelve per cent in the 
five years 1855-60, when the gold influx was at the highest. The 
quantity of gold so greatly ' increased, helped, besides, by an in- 
crease of thirty-three per cent of paper circulation in the ten years 
1850-60, had not the effect of depreciating the exchange value of 
either, and especially of the coin circulation. Whatever force there 
is in the law of " demand and supply " it manifestly had no appli- 
cation to the money conditions of this remarkable period, which 
can help us to measure the effect of quantity of money upon either 
its intrinsic or exchange value. 

The argument, borrowed from the history of paper money, we 
must insist, has no proper application to the operations of a coin 
circulation in the respect now under consideration. The difference 
lies in these particulars : circulating notes have not any intrinsic 
•value (beyond the cost of their production, and that only while 



IIG QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

they answer their designed use). They are merely pledges of 
credit — the credit of governments, or banks, and of the bor- 
rowers from them, and being, to a very great extent, mere anticipa- 
tions of values not yet realized, the holders under such uncer- 
tainties of security, and especially in periods of alarm, will push 
off such notes for anything better secured; they will realize by in- 
vesting in property more secure, willingly paying the premium of 
such insurance ; that is, they will give higher prices for safer 
property, and so, paper money depreciates. Specie never depre- 
ciates for such cause. Its abundance never touches its solvency, 
and we must look elsewhere for the fluctuations in its value. Only 
one cause remains, and that has the great strength in this argument 
that it is the sole cause of value of all industrial productions that 
are exchanged among men — the cost of its production ; that is, of 
its reproduction at the time when its value is the question. If it 
were as easily obtained as water, its market, or exchange value, would 
be only the cost of transportation from the rivers to the consumer, 
or the cost of sinking and working the wells, and of conveyance 
when it must be found beneath the service. When it is found as 
abundant as iron, and as easily produced in condition for use, it 
will be as cheap by the ton, whether it be more or less fit for like 
purposes. 

Some idea of the increase of metallic money in circulation in 
Europe may be had from Humboldt's estimate, which is accepted by 
experts as approximately correct. He puts it at more than thirty 
times the quantity in the eighteenth century over that of the 
fifteenth. This period of three hundred years covers the compara- 
tively vast addition derived from the American mines, which fol- 
lowed the discovery of the New World. The rate of increase upon 
the previous supplies within the present century, may be guessed at 
by the coinage before and since California and Australia have been 
opened. The British mint, in the fifteen years 1816-30, coined 
gold and silver to the value of fifty-five and three-fourths millions of 
pounds sterling. In the fifteen years, 1S51-G5, to the amount of 
ninety-six millions of pounds. Taking later and fairer periods for 
contrast in the United States — the mint and branches coined one 
hundred and six and a half millions of dollars in the fifteen years 
1825-49; and in the fifteen years 1851-65, seven hundred and 
forty-nine millions. 



MONEY AS AN EXCHANGER OF VALUES. 117 

It is known tliat such multiplication of the amount in use as 
these figures show has not yet depreciated the exchange value of 
money made of these metals. So we say again that whatever force 
the law of supply and demand may be allowed, it helps nothing in 
determining either the intrinsic value or purchasing power, or, so to 
speak, the market price of the precious metals in use, as they have 
operated in past or present times. Nearly a hundred years ago, 
when the matter was as well in view, and the facts of experience as 
strong to the point, as now, Adam Smith said that the importation 
of one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty millions of 
francs per annum for more than a century, with all the substitutes 
for metallic money added in that time, had not depreciated the ex- 
change value of the precious metals in Europe. 

The source of error in the customary reasoning on this subject 
lies in fixing or finding a standard of supply, and making no allow- 
ance for the variance of demand which such supply induces. Even 
if the limit of consumption or use were ascertained, or ascertainable, 
or imaginable, the application of the law to money would be a mis- 
take. A community cannot consume more than a certain quantity 
of food, but who can fix a limit for the use or consumption of news- 
papers, furniture, clothing, or of vehicles for travel and transporta- 
tion? And how can a gauge be invented for the use of money? 
As concerns the present and probable supply of the precious 
metals, the possible requirement is the subject of such conditions 
as these : — 

The wealth of G-reat Britain is growing at the rate of a thousand 
millions of dollars a year ; France and the United States, together, 
twice as much, without embracing the rest of the continents of 
Europe and America. These three thousand millions of added prop- 
erty in their markets can easily make room for an addition of two 
or three hundred millions a year without altering prices, or pro- 
ducing a relative depreciation of a farthing in the hundred pounds 
worth. Nay, they may employ, besides, double their ordinary 
amount of bank paper, keeping it sound the while, and by adopting 
cash payments in lieu of the usual run of credits for sixty, ninety, 
or one hundred and twenty days, or for six months or a year, 
such increase of circulation would be all '^demanded" and the 
medium would not depreciate, whether metallic, or paper, or mixed. 
Furnish the money in any increase of quantity that the market will 



1 



118 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 



absorb and, not its value, but the credit system among buyers and 
sellers will be proportionately affected. 

But a metallic money and its representative, convertible circula- 
ting paper money, together are not the only mediums of payment in 
use. There are other agencies working in their stead, and toward 
their exclusion from this office and service, which greatly affects 
their supply, and their sufficiency relatively to the requirement or 
" demand " in the business of exchange. This is money of account 
in ledgers, checks, drafts, bills of exchange, negotiable notes of hand, 
or, in whatever form private and bank debts and claims are evi- 
denced. These, to a great extent are settled without the use of any- 
thing that is called money or circulation. Clearing houses strictly 
so called, in the principal cities, and banks of discount and deposit 
everywhere, perform this office — they settle debts and claims by the 
process that in law is called set-off. During a year ending in Octo- 
ber, 1869, the banks of New York settled mutual claims of debtor 
and creditor, occurring among themselves, which amounted to one 
hundred and twenty-five millions dollars per day ; the balances paid • 
on these transactions averaging about four per cent, seldom rising 
to five per cent of the whole amount of the claims so adjusted by 
set-off. In other words, they paid to each other about one hundred 
and twenty millions every day without using a dollar of money of 
any kind, other than this money of account expressed in drafts, 
checks, and bills. 

Country banks do exactly the same thing for their customers 
which the banks of the cities do for each other — they balance debts 
against each other by charges and credits on their books, and to the 
extent of such balances, no money of coin or bank notes, whatever, 
is paid by or to any body. Wherever business is well organized 
all credits may be liquidated without the use of more money than 
the profits of business which may vary from five to ten or fifteen 
per cent, and for the amount of such profits only can any one need 
money of any kind where any form of the clearing house agency is 
employed. Accordingly currency is in greater demand, relatively 
to the business done, where no such set-off system is available, and^ 
where it is employed money is proportionately eliminated. 

By virtue of this agency of the clearing house in England, the 
necessity for money ^of any kind is diminishing relatively to the 
amount of business transacted. For example and proof: the ex- 



MONEY AS AN EXCHANGER OF VALUES. 119 

ports of British and Irish products, in the year 1840, were valued 
at fifty-one and a half millions of pounds; the note circulation of the 
United Kingdom in that year was thirty-six and a half millions of 
pounds. In 1865, the like exports amounted to one hundred and 
sixty-six millions, and the note circulation stood at thirty-seven and 
a half millions. Taking the exports of 1865 to indicate the general 
increase of business, and the necessarily equal increase of some or 
all the methods of payment, we find this result: the business of 
the Kingdom increased in these fifteen years two hundred and 
twenty-four percent; the circulation only two and three-quarters 
per cent. _ Evidently the service of money in exchanging values, is 
totally misunderstood when its quantity is supposed to be the equiva- 
lent of the values exchanged. People confuse themselves with the 
fact that the same piece of money may be used in a dozen, a hun- 
dred, or a thousand payments in the year. But here the same or 
within a fraction of the same amount of money served the business 
of producing and purchasing more than three times the quantity of 
goods after a lapse of twenty-five years. Did it circulate more than 
three times faster ? The goods bought and sold with money change 
ownership, or circulate just as often and as fast. A dollar's worth 
of goods passes with every dollar paid for them, and one dollar can- 
not do the exchange work of three in cash sales. But we will 
understand the subject more clearly, when we shall have ascertained 
and considered those other functions of money which are not seen 
in its simple office of exchanger of commodities in market. 



CHAPTER X. 

MONEY— A PRODUCER WHILE ACTIXG AS AN EXCHANGER 
OF VALUES. 

•Money— a producer, while acting as an exchanger of values :— How money stimu- 
lates production.— It is not dead capital.— Money in civilized labor— the 
primum mohile of industry.— Production proportioned to capital employed.— 
Productiveness not in arithmetical, but in geometrical proportion to the money 
impulse.— Error, vulgar and scientific, of the equivalence of value of circulating 
money to the things exchanged in commerce.— Hume.— Mill.— Money the 
pendulum of prices, Mill's formula, contradicted by obvious facts.— Not one 
dollar of money in any country to sixteen or twenty in value of commercial 
exchanges. Increase of circulation does not pro tanto increase prices.— In 
nothing else do gluts and deficiencies affect prices in simple arithmetical pro- 
portions.— Prices of wheat in excess and deficiency of supply.— Ratio of money 
to prices in sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, by Arthur Young.— 
In the nineteenth century prices have fallen as money increased in quantity— 
in England, sixty per cent in thirty years— in New York, in a range of from 
forty-four to twelve per cent in five years, under an increase of the currency of 
twenty-two per cent.— Land and Labor have risen by increase of their intrinsic 
■jTorth.— Prices of manufactures fall— food remains stationary, because the vital 
laws are less understood than the mechanical.— Land and Labor rise, and their 
products fall in price.— What is meant by land— what by labor.— Without capi- 
tal, land, labor, and people worthless.— Sparseness and poverty of savage popu- 
lations.— Causes of Indian extinction.— Without property in the land, no labor; 
without labor, land worthless.— Nature subdued through her own agencies, 
man and land enriched.— Renovation of- the earth conditioned upon obedience 
to the Creator's laws.— Money embodies all forms of capital, and is efiBcient in 
proportion to its amount and movement.— It employs wasting labor, and raises 
prices of commodities and wages to par, but never higher.— Afterwards reduces 
prices by increased production. — Par value of money defined. — The assump- 
tions of Mill's theory are impossibilities.— Money of account— its equivalence 
to values exchanged precise, because it is itself their ideal measure. — Results of 
the argument.— The supply of money and labor always hitherto short of the 
service required from them. — All increase of both beneficial, except in its effects 
upon creditors.— These effects, nevertheless, not inequitable. — Debt-holders 
have no right to a perpetual release from the labor of self-support.— Effect of 
lessened cost of their production upon the precious metals. — Their use till they 
have performed their uses.— How they widen their sphere of use till their service 
is fulfilled, 
120 



MONEY AS A PRODUCER OE VALUES. 121 

" In every Kingdom into wliicli money begins to flow in greater 
abundance than formerly," says David Hume, " everything takes a 
new face ; labor and industry gain life ; the merchant becomes 
more enterprising, the manufacturer more diligent and skillful, 
and the farmer follows the plough with more alacrity and attention." 
This statement is true, and the reasons for it are especially worthy 
of attention. We must understand why money is such a stimulant 
of industrial production and of activity in trade. Labor is capital, 
unless the cause is lost in the effect. Labor power is the result of 
the consumption of other capital in the form of food, clothing, and 
other means of support and development. But labor power, like 
that generated in steam, perishes instantly upon coming into exist- 
ence. If not instantly employed it is lost. Money is in the same 
predicament. Its productiveness is in its activity — it must yield 
interest or profit, and it must be made to yield profit in order to pay 
interest. "Time is money" to money itself, as it is to labor. It 
solicits employment, and prompts, while it aids, industry. It is a 
motor power to labor of all kinds ; heads and hands, men and 
things are put to use, that otherwise must remain idle, and while 
idle, useless and wasting, though life and its necessities go on with 
their demands through poverty to destitution. 

The conditions of human life are such that its indispensable sup- 
plies, comforts, and luxuries must be drawn by perpetual new crea- 
tions from the elements of the earth. Labor, in its largest sense, 
is the cost of these supplies. Among civilized men in advancing 
conditions these necessities are ever increasing in extent and variety. 
Civilization is progress, and progress means growing control of 
material things, and this, again, means a growing demand for them. 
Money stimulates, promotes, and assists the production that meets 
the enlarging wants, and is far from being passive in its use — a 
sign, a counter, or a mere measure of the values of other things. 

Capital in the form of money, or credit representing money, is 
the yoke-fellow, the co'dperator of labor in all production in ad- 
vancing stages and conditions of society. Men cannot work with- 
out implements ; they cannot work profitably or availably without 
all sorts of machinery; and they cannot work at all without current 
subsistence. They cannot wait a day for ,_the conversion of their 
special products into the clothes they must^wear, and the food they 
must eat. And above all, they cannot wait, without loss and suf- 
9 



122 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

fering, for the labor by which they live. Capital is thus the prime 
condition with labor, just as labor is the first consideration with 
capital. Married they are, for better or worse, in mutual and equal 
dependence ; and on that marriage depends their issue for its exist- 
ence, quantity, and quality. A certain amount of coin or credit 
money is indispensable to adequate production. It may, indeed, 
be called the prinium mobile — the first cause of motion in all 
civilized industries ; for here, as in the Ptolemaic system of the 
planetary circulation, it is the outermost revolving sphere which 
gives motion to all the rest. 

Money (coin and credit) is the power which puts all the wheels 
of the great machine of business into motion, and, accordingly, 
their velocity and force correspond to the force of the propelling 
current, or to the force of the currency. Hume states the effect of 
au abundance in general terms sufficiently descriptive; but it 
should be understood that the measure of increased activity in 
business is not an arithmetical ratio, or a dollar's worth of in- 
creased effect for every dollar added to the sum of the force. The 
proportion of increase in the motor power is not a dead numeral 
multiplier. It is an impulse generating force by its own action, 
and producing a movement best described as accelerated ve- 
locity. To this character or quality of its law of increase cor- 
responds the action of its deficiency, which, with constantly and 
rapidly growing effect at every stage, tends to fall below the power 
of moving the machinery at all; the stand-still being anticipated 
long before the supply is totally expended. Nothing is so sensitive 
to prospective changes as money capital. The apprehension of 
diminished exchange value puts it to unwonted activity of produc- 
tive effort. It quickens its movement just as its use cheapens, 
until at last it goes begging for work. On the other hand, under 
the prospect of a rise in its exchange value, it tightens its out- 
goings; its interest rises ; debtors, to escape bankruptcy, and non- 
capitalists, who cannot afford to be idle, must have it at whatever 
sacrifice they can bear ; and accordingly its rate of hire, and its 
purchasing power, rise relatively to all other capital, including 
labor, in far more than the arithmetical ratio of its own scarcity. 

This is all so plain that no argument is required to establish its 
abstract truth ; but we want the force of this truth for most im- 
portant and greatly-needed uses in considering the functions and 



1 



MONEY AS A PRODUCER OP VALUES. 123 

influence of money at large. Just here we have to meet a preva- 
lent error of the unskilled, backed by the authority of a school of 
economists, who hold the popular ear by the easy terms of furnish- 
ing logical formulas for the verification of acceptable notions. 

Money is a mystery — enough so in itself, but all the more that the 
mystery is muddied with a parcel of aphorisms which are allowed 
to obstruct the light that might clear up some of the fundamental 
principles of its true theory. 

For instance, it is currently held that the amount of money in 
circulation represents the value of all property in exchange ; that, 
no matter whether the quantity be great or small, it is equally, and 
in all cases, the measure of prices. Hume made this mischievous 
blunder seventy years ago, and J. Stuart Mill repeats it in the last 
edition of his " Political Economy." He says, " the doubling of the 
money in use would do no good to any one ; would make no differ- 
ence except having to reckon pounds, shillings and pence in greater 
numbers. It would be an increase of values only as estimated in 
money, a thing only wanted to buy other things with; and would 
not enable any one to buy more of them than before." And he goes 
on to say, " this ratio would be precisely that in which the quantity 
of money had been increased. If the whole money in circulation 
was doubled, prices would be doubled. If it was only increased one- 
fourth, prices would rise one-fourth." 

How like clock-work this thing is calculated ; and with what con- 
fidence the notion is delivered ! Thus, if the pendulum beats two 
strokes for one in the second, the hands will traverse the dial-plate 
twice as often in twelve hours as they do, but they would measure 
only the same length of time. But, is money the pendulum of 
prices, and are its scarcity and its abundance measured by arith- 
metical multipliers and divisors on the price-current dial-plate of 
the market ? Or, is the whole thing an assumption — a bundle of 
assumptions, having nothing to recommend it but the arithmetical 
symmetry of its dogmatic statement? 

In the first place, the money of no country in the world is either 
equal, or bears any constant proportion to the total values in that 
country's markets. The gold, silver, and bank paper of the United 
States never, before the great Rebellion, reached beyond four hun- 
dred millions of dollars. Nay, if the inactive specie be subtracted, 
three hundred millions was the extreme limit of the money in use. 



124 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

But, the annual products of industry were at least worth four thou- 
sand millions, of which if but three-fourths were bought and sold, 
and another thousand millions worth of real estate went into 
market, and still another thousand millions were paid for all pro- 
fessional, educational, and artistic services, we have five thousand 
millions to be paid and received, by means of three hundred millions, 
or by one dollar of money for every sixteen and two-thirds of values 
only once exchanged ! 

NoW; if one to sixteen expressed the proportion in 1860, at some 
given day in that year, would an addition of a hundred millions of 
currency, made the next day, being one-third of the sum existing 
the day before, put up all prices thirty-three and one-third per cent? 
or, would it certainly enhance by so much the price of any com- 
modity whatever, by its own proper operation, that is, by the effect 
of such addition ? 

The radical error of this doctrine is in the assumed fixed equiva- 
lence of the money in circulation to the commodities in exchange, 
and it becomes all the more strikingly palpable as it is applied to 
varying quantities. There is no such ratio of effect in the excess or 
deficiency of any other thing, as is here assumed by the alleged 
principle, and expressed in the detailed statement. Gluts do not 
proceed in cheapening, nor deficiencies in enhancing, market values 
in arithmetical proportions. Ten per cent deficiency in wheat will 
enhance its price thirty per cent; the supply being reduced to one- 
half, the price will go up to a four hundred and fifty per cent in- 
crease. i^Ir. Mill is himself aware of this fact^ and formally states 
and afiirms it elsewhere. The like variance of price with difference 
of supply happens when the market is overstocked — the decline in 
price of that which is anxiously seeking purchasers, is not measured 
evenly by the percentage of surplus. 

The proposition which afiirms a constant equivalence of money 
with the market values of other things, is answered in its own terms, 
thus : Arthur Young estimates the increase of money in the six- 
teenth, over the amount in the fifteenth century, at two hundred and 
eighty-two per cent, and of general prices in the same time at forty- 
two per cent; in the seventeenth century at seven hundred and 
seventy-five per cent of money, and ninety-six per cent of prices; 
and in the eighteenth over the fifteenth century at one thousand 
and nineteen per cent of money to one hundred and ninety-two 



MONEY AS A PRODUCER OF VALUES. 125 

per cent of prices. Here we have money increased faster than prices 
rose six and three-quarters times in the sixteenth, eight times in the 
seventeenth, and five and one-third in the eighteenth century. 

Since the epoch of modern improvement in industrial production 
we find that prices fall, and fall immensely in the face of a vast in- 
crease of the money supply, just as on our theory they should fall in 
inverse proportion to the force of the great agent afiecting them. 
Take, for example, the thirty years between 1817 and 1818 : in 
this time England retained for use an average of ten millions of 
dollars per annum of the precious metals which she imported ; in the 
whole period, adding three hundred millions to her stock. Did 
prices go up in proportion? Were her traders put to counting 
pounds, shillings, and pence in greater numbers for the same quantity 
of goods ? On the contrary, the prices of all the multiform products 
that enter into the British exports fell sixty per cent, fell from a 
dollar to two-fifths of the dollar ! In the presence of this three hun- 
dred millions of increase in the precious metals, the exports, which 
at the prices of 1817 would have cost three thousand two hundred 
millions, were valued at only one thousand two hundred and eighty 
millions in 1848. 

The notion tried again at a later period and nearer home — in the 
United States : the bank notes in circulation and the bank deposits, 
which also perform the functions of credit money, together amounted 
to three hundred and seventy-seven millions of dollars in the year 
1855, and in 1860 they had risen to four hundred and sixty millions 
— twenty-two per cent. Were market prices twenty-two per cent 
higher on this account ? As before stated, thirty of the sixty prin- 
cipal articles on the price-lists of New York had in those five years 
actually fallen some forty-four per cent, others twelve per cent, and 
others more or less between these rates. On the other articles^ the 
changes were too slight to have any bearing upon the point at issue, 
and they were, besides, generally such articles of foreign supply as 
would be affected by many other causes. 

The history of prices in England of manufactured goods such as 
she exports, under the influence of a doubled quantity of gold and 
silver in the country ought of itself to be conclusive. 

With respect to labor, it is admitted that its wages rise as money 
increases; not, however, because more pieces of an aggregate equal 
value must be counted as the equivalent of an equal amount of work, 



126 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

but because the money added to the employing capital increases the 
productiveness, and with it the rewards of the laborer. In the like 
circumstances, land also appreciates, but not more than the real in- 
crease of its productiveness made by the industry of the period — 
by improvement in cultivation and convenience of market; both 
being eflPected by the employment of increased capital and labor. 
The general statement is, that, under an influx of money, the prices 
of all the commodities commonly called manufactures fall rapidly 
and greatly. Food remains nearly stationary, with a natural tendency 
to fall in price, but is subject to a slower and less certain reduction, 
for the reason that its production depends upon the laws of vegetable 
physiology in which but little advance of knowledge is yet made; 
while those laws which are concerned in the arts of conversion, 
generally having dead matter for their subjects, are more and more 
mastered day by day ; leaving land and wages as the only things 
that naturally enhance in value under the stimulus of capital applied 
in their employment and development. 

Have we fallen upon a paradox here ? Meaning, by a paradox, a 
proposition seemingly absurd or self-contradictory, but true in fact. 
Probably. And this apprehension warrants an attempt at a fuller 
exposition of the principles and facts involved. "We take the ground 
that land and labor, and only land and labor, can and must enhance 
in value under the appliances of capital in their employment, and, 
that their products, in forms of use, must as continually decline in 
value. Baldly stated : land increasing in value lowers the cost of 
its products; wages growing in cost, their products decline in price; 
always supposing that both the one and the other are intrinsically 
improved by the aid of capital. By land, we mean all primitive sub- 
stances belonging to the material globe — timber, water, soil, minerals, 
and the like, with all their spontaneous products ; by labor, the 
muscular power of man, the intelligence which directs it, and the 
moral qualities which contribute to its efl[iciency. 

Now let us see how the argument runs : 

The gold of the Rocky Mountains was as useless as their iron 
ores or their fossil coal, or the latent electricity of the earth and air 
to the savage Indians; and the Indians were as worthless to the 
world and to themselves, just because their land was as nearly good 
for nothing as they were. Land and labor are bound together for 
good or ill. The soil, indeed, gave them a little maize, the waters 



MONEY AS A PRODUCER OF VALUESi 127 

a few fislies, and the forests fire-wood, wild fruits, and game ; but tlie 
brute elements and spontaneous food starvingly maintained a declin- 
ing human stock, tending constantly to extinction. The richer 
soils of the Mississippi valley and of the Atlantic slope did scarcely 
better for them. In all that region which now supports eight mil- 
lions of people, reaching from Connecticut to Lake Erie, and from 
the chain of the Lakes to the Potomac river, Colonel Parker, the 
best authority we have on the subject, says, there were not more 
than twenty-five thousand Indians when Columbus discovered the 
Continent. The maize culture was deficient ; the wild herds failed 
them; they had no commerce, either in furs or manufactures; and 
famines, diseases, and the wars of hungry rapacity were rapidly 
destroying them. Earth and man worthless to each other; poverty, 
sterility, despair and death, described them both. Making no ac- 
cumulations of the means of subsistence, they had no capital. 
Having no capital, they had not the indispensable agent for the sub- 
jugation of nature's forces to their service. 

In this state of things there was nothing in land worth claiming 
in individual ownership, except for temporary occupation, and the 
fee simple of the territories was not worth more to the tribes collect- 
ively than the powder, blankets, and glass beads for which they 
sold it; nor was the whisky, which acted so largely in the. extinc- 
tion of their title, much more insalubrious than the untamed forces 
of nature to which they were exposed. ' 

But change the scene — the coal becomes fuel, the fuel becomes 
power. A ton of it does the work of fifteen hundred men for one 
day ; three hundred tons are equal to their work for a year. The 
capable soil, the power of the running streams, the mines, with all 
else which the earth holds for human use are all utilized, and the 
desert becomes the property and the home of millions of men. The 
thorns and thistles of the primal curse are displaced, and the soil, 
baptized in the sweat of the face of labor, brings forth bread in 
abundance, and, behold, it is once more " very good," even as when 
the approving smile fell upon the first garden. The recreated in 
its degree, approaches the new created earth. The original con- 
ditions of human sovereignty are observed ; the command is ful- 
filled — " Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and 
siibdue it." How striking the mutuality subsisting between land 
and labor, with this appropriate advantage that the human agent is 



128 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

much more improved than the material things joined with, and sub- 
ject to his advancement. The earth has physical and vital proper- 
ties for his service; man has these and moral, intellectual^ and 
religious endowments, besides, to spread a world-wide distance be- 
tween his savage state and his highest possible earthly development. 
All that there is great and happy in his destiny is conditioned 
strictly upon the application of his powers to the capabilities of 
nature, and is achieved in proportion to the agencies employed. 
These agencies are all comprehended in the signification of the word 
capital. Money represents them all, and its efficiency is in the 
measure of its amount and activity. 

Is there a man in the nation idle — idle for want of capital to 
employ him ? Are there a million of men and women thus unoc- 
cupied ? Is half the available time of all, in the average, thus 
wasted ? Why ? Do they answer as they stand in the labor 
market, "No man hath hired us?" Then double the capital; put 
them all to work ; and will a dollar of the required increase of 
capital then be acting only in reduction of exchange values ? 
No; under the quickening touch of invigorated industry, rendering 
the whole people able to obtain and consume the added products, 
instead of starving and economizing, prices will not rise further 
than to restore from depression the natural values of labor and 
commodities. The first effect will be that the minerals, which 
before lay idle, will come into market; the commodities, that gorged 
the markets before, will find purchasers, and all prices will rise 
to the level of general prosperity, until cheapened processes of pro- 
duction and conversion shall reduce them, but without abating the 
remuneration of either capital or labor, now made capable of larger 
results by the employment of the same forces through better means 
and instruments. 

Money coming into larger and more active service, and setting 
idle hands and minds to work, by finding employment for all, will 
give wages to the unemployed, and raise the wages of those who 
have been underbidding each other for work, and so, will raise the 
labor cost of industrial products and their raw materials to living 
prices — to par. In its scarcity money was at a premium and man 
and property at a proportionate discount. x\n adequate supply 
gives a resumption of values. Money has not depreciated, but 
returned to its normal value, by regaining its proper producing 



MONEY AS A PRODUCER OF VALUES. 129 

operation ; its par value being determined by its ability to put all 
hands to work and fairly reward them for it. 

If metallic money were nothing else than a medium of exchange, 
and at the same time the only medium of exchange, or, in the 
language of Mr. Mill, "a thing only wanted to buy other things 
with," aud if, as he holds, it had such elasticity of exchange value 
as to be always equal to all varieties of quantity of other things, it 
must, of necessity, rise and fall in value in the ratio of its supply 
relatively to the property exchanged by it; and the same thing 
would be true of its convertible representatives. Its scarcity and 
its abundance would then work like an elastic measure, and be 
always equal to all quantities of things exchanged by it. These 
ifs^ however, cover just as many absurdities and sheer impossi- 
bilities. 

Even confiued to its office as an exchanger of values, it is not 
the only medium in use ; and so far as it does serve in this office, it 
also acts at the same time as a producer of the values to be ex- 
changed, thereby furnishing the increase of subjects upon which 
it is to operate as an exchanger in the market, and thus maintaining 
its own equiponderance. 

There is one sort of money — the money of account — that, ex- 
pressed in the ledgers of traders, which has an exact equivalence 
to the total value of the commodities which they deal in. Such 
equivalence it has because it is an ideal money only, and 
not in itself a valuable thing or substance. When such ac- 
counts are settled by set-off, the exchanges are effected by simple 
indirect barter, in which circulating money has no place, and the 
nominal values are wholly indifferent to the question in hand. But 
money having the value of its labor cost in itself, or in the thing 
which it represents, is subject to the general law of value, which is 
the cost of reproduction, and has no other equivalence than its 
comparative labor cost; in other words, it is no more, nor other- 
wise, the equivalent of marketed goods and things than wheat or 
iron is. 

It results from the examination of the whole subject that only 
ideal money, such as the money of account, employed in indirect 
barter by set-off, is the sliding-scale equivalent in exchanges ; and 
that all other money, having in itself intrinsically or representa- 
tively, a value of its own, and having, besides, the functions of 



130 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

capital in production, is not a simple exchanger, even wlien acting 
in tliis one of its offices, and for these reasons, is subject to varying 
price in exchange only as all other commodities are. 

Thus far we have been considering money as it is and has been. 
A history marked by this conspicuous fact — there never yet has 
been enough of it. Let this fact have its due force. Its assigned 
office is to put the whole world of men to work upon the whole world 
of matter. This it has by virtue of its universal acceptance as the 
representative of all accumulations of wealth, which accumulations 
are the instruments and agents of all civilized industry. In the 
hitherto, and present, state of human industry, neither labor nor 
capital have even tolerably approached the full performance of their 
duties — each defective, in lack of the aid of the other. Insufficiency 
and inefficiency of labor argues insufficiency and inefficiency of 
money. Therefore, no casual, or fluctuating, or steady increase in the 
whole of the medium ever could hitherto have had the character or 
force of an excess, or overplus supply. 

The growing quantity has never done anything but good, tending 
always towards better and better service to the world. An excep- 
tion — the only one — might be taken to its effects upon the contract 
value of debts, to which it is a sufficient answer, that in this, like 
all other valuable things, the precious metals follow the law of labor 
value. The original creditor gave something — services or goods, or 
lands, in exchange for the obligation. If he had kept these proper- 
ties till the maturity of the debt, they would have been worth no 
more than the like things produced at the time, and he must take 
just the quantity of gold or silver that he bargained for, though at 
the end of the term it is produced at half, or any less, labor cost, 
and will command only the same or some other proportion of prop- 
erty and service. Moreover, it is well that the burden of old 
debts — annuities and national debts — lose much of their burden in 
the progress of human affairs. If it were not so, the coming gener- 
ations would be wofully oppressed by the debts of the present and 
past. The interest of some of these debts has already supported 
several successive lives, and no harm will be done in equity if their 
successors shall have to do something for their own support. All 
things else "perish with the using;" why should debts remain in- 
tact perpetually ? 

But the supply of the precious metals has always heretofore been 



MONEY AS A PRODUCER OE VALUES. 131 

below the requirement, because of the difficulty of their production, 
or, what is the same thing, their scarcity ; and this has been the 
cause of their high value in exchange, as it must necessarily be. If 
ever they shall become as plenty as iron, will they not be as cheap, 
and thereby be depreciated in value till they exchange by the ton 
instead of by the ounce troy, as now ? We answer, that their labor 
cost will always be their standard of exchange value, and when they 
lose their convenience as a medium of payment, they will cease to be 
so used, and then there will be no question of the effect of their 
abundance upon the value of other things. 

But they will never be produced in excess of the demand for 
such uses as they can serve ; for beyond the point of paying, as well 
as other things, for the labor employed in their production, it must 
cease; and in the mean time, while advancing toward such point, 
they will be more and more dispensed with, by the growing use of 
those other kinds of money, which are already carrying the world 
of business towards the type form of exchange, simple barter, by 
the intervention of credit money, which is so much better, cheaper, 
and more convenient than gold and silver. Except in international 
dealings, and the small change of daily expenses, these are now but 
little used, and ^re destined to a continual process of elimination, as 
business is better and better organized. 

Until metallic money and its convertible representatives shall 
have reached the point of increasing by their active agency the 
production of commodities to their utmost amount and utility, they 
cannot decline in permanent value, so as to require the counting of 
more pieces in payment for the same thing in market, for they are 
found to cheapen such products much more rapidly than their own 
value declines by added quantity. They of course will not be' 
multiplied in the payment of debts; for the debt-dollar stands 
unchanged through all changes in other things; and nothing 
remains to take the effect threatened by the theorists of equiva- 
lence, but land and labor. These, indeed, will require larger amounts 
as they improve ; not because money is cheapened, however, but 
because they have become worth more of it than they were while 
it was scarce, or comparatively scarce, and was therefore less effi- 
cient for their advancement to a higher real value. 

The necessary action of its growing quantity is the opening of 
new industries, and improvement of the old. While there remains 



132 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

a usoful substance in the earth, or sea, or air, not utilized to its 
hiohest worth — while an improved apparatus of production is still 
wantinc^ — while a brain requiring the means of sustenance, and the 
command of opportunity, and of implements, has yet a latent 
thought capable of human service — capital in the form of money 
will have ample scope and verge enough to spread without weaken- 
ing its value. It will go on constantly cheapening the ultimate 
products, but its own accretions will all be demanded in calling into 
existence additional values, greater quantities, and better qualities; 
and this work will absorb it all without a depreciating remainder 
of supply. 

What remains to be said on this subject will be considered in 
the chapter upon banks of discount, deposit, and issue. 



CHAPTER XI. 

PAPER money; and, INCIDENTALLY, OP BANKS OF DEPOSIT, 
DISCOUNT, AND ISSUE. 

Bank j^aper, not banks, the subject: Banking, an instance of cooperation. — 
Money an exchanger and producer of values. — Exclusive metallic money and 
barter. — Hoarding. — ^Depositing at interest in early times. — English bankers 
of the seventeenth century. — Negotiable certificates of deposit, their service. — 
Convenience of metallic money increased in its substitutes. — Basis required 
for representative money. — Limited analogy of the circulating medium to the 
circulation of the blood. — Figures of speech need watching. — Plethora of 
money, a mischievous phrase. — No measurable ratio between quantitj' and 
rapidity of money circulation and their effects upon business. — Exchange value 
of money, the cost of its production, or of the things it represents, not 
affected by its quantity. — How deposit bankers affect the money supply and its 
service. — Bank of Amsterdam in the seventeenth century. — Banks of Genoa 
and Venice in the twelfth century. — Difference of effects between the transfer of 
money and of the property in it. —Representatives of money begin in dej)Osits, 
and depend upon them; credit system arises. — Miracle power of faith in com- 
merce. — Multiplying power of credit. — Faith-force over and above fact-force. — 
Brotherhood in business affairs corresponds to brotherhood in spiritual things. — 
Deposit banks, sources of profit and creators of credit.- — -Instances in illustra- 
tion. — Concentration of capital brings credit with it. — Elements of the banking 
business. — General Benefits. — Credit makes capital of character. — Abuses of 
the credit system. — Evil is inverted good. — Civilization and liberty rest upon 
credit. — Bank notes, their convenience greater than that of checks and drafts. — 
Special adaptation to ordinary uses. — The money of the common people. — The 
bank note as a traveler.— -Circulating notes issued by the United States Govern- 
ment — their amount in 1864 and 1871. — Irredeemable currency- — six hundred 
and ninety millions in 1870, against two hundred and fourteen millions in 
1857. — Extent of depreciation. — -The work done by this currency. — Prosperity 
under its use. — Paper money the resort of nations in their days of trial.— More 
loyal and cheaper in its service than funded debts. — Service of deposit banks. — 
Exemption from runs. — Safe proportion of loans and circulation to amount of 
capital and deposits. — Profits upon bank capital. — Average of twenty-eight 
city banks. — Banks enhance the service of money three and a half times. — 
Development of the banking system in serial order. — Benefit, risks, and neces- 
sity of banks. — Credit system indispensable — to be amended, but not re- 
stricted. — English system unimproved in the last two centuries. — Balance of 
good and evil in favor of banks. — Distribution of banks. — In Scotland- 

133 



134 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

average area of her bank districts — in the United States. — Excellence of the 
Scottish system — its popularity. — Popularity of the greenback currency. — 
Governments cannot administer a general banking system. — United States 
Xational Banking system requires amendment. — Banking should be as free as 
any other business. — Convertibility, exclusively aimed at, hinders reform. — 
Failure of Bank of England charter. — Safety, not convertibility, the essence of 
the bauk note. — Inconvertible paper better than a deficient sound currency. — 
Loss by discount as nothing to an arrest of industry. — The mystery of money, 
no mystery to currency cobblers. 

It must be understood that we have no room here, and no use 
for an exhaustive treatise upon banks and banking. We are occu- 
pied with money and its functions ; and banking systems are but 
little more concerned in our investigations concerning bank paper 
money, than gold and silver mines, their geology and practical 
history, are involved in discussing their products, which are em- 
ployed as a medium of exchange. 

The pivot point of our inquiry is the service of coins and cir- 
culating notes in the world's business. This must be kept steadily 
in view in order to avoid distraction and confusion of thought; 
just as it is necessary to keep the eye fixed upon some stationary 
point, lest the head grow giddy, when all around is reeling in 
counter currents of shore and stream, as one crosses a rapid river. 
The policy of banking systems as one of the cooperation move- 
ments by which associations of capitalists combine and enhance 
their force in commerce is, however, so immediately in our track of 
thought, and so pertinent to the general issue of our work, that 
even here some of the plainer and more important features of the 
subject will be in place, though the treatment be an anticipation 
of the orderly consideration of the associative movements, growing 
more and more conspicuous and efficient with all progress in 
civilization. 

Asking the reader to carry with hiui all the while, the steadying 
idea that money is at once the agent in universal use for effecting 
exchanges of services and of commodities, by which the results of all 
labor are distributed among men in fitting quantity and kind, ac- 
cording to their several necessities, and at the same time, that it acts 
as exchanger, is also the agent of capital of every kind in its office 
of producer of all commodities in civilized life — we may proceed to 
consider the means by which it is supplied for use, and by which its 
circulation is promoted. 



CREDIT MONEY. 135 

Assuming a state of society in whicli coins of the precious metals 
alone are in use, as representatives of exchange values, and at the 
same time, assuming that they are employed only as other commodi- 
ties are, in simple barter, such coins passing at every purchase and 
payment in business transactions, it will be immediately perceived 
that we are involved in a condition of barbarism of a low stage — ■ 
barbarism bordering upon savagism so closely as scarcely to be dis- 
tinguished from it. In such a condition of things money must be 
idle in the hands of the owners during all the intervals between 
sales and purchases. It is for such periods hoarded and useless, and 
so would indeed be, what Adam Smith calls, dead-stock, or rather 
stock in a state of suspended animation. But the holders naturally 
desire to have it at once active in their service and safely at their 
command, and for this purpose, a depository must be found in which 
it will yield some profit to the depositor, either directly, in the 
shape of interest, or indirectly, in the common benefit of the whole 
community. Accordingly we find a bank in which money could be 
deposited, so that the owner after an interval might require " his 
own with usury" mentioned as a well known existing institution as 
early as the beginning of the Christian era, (Luke xix., 23). In- 
deed, scarcely the earliest organization of commerce and industry 
can be conceived of as possible, without a money exchange or 
market, corresponding and proportioned to the coexisting com- 
modity-exchange or market, which business of any sort implies and 
necessitates. The earlier communities had not the institutions 
which ice call banks; but they had, as they must needs have had, in 
their place individual bankers, answering in a degree the same re- 
quirements, xlccording to Mr. 3Iacaulay, so lately as the date of the 
restoration (A.D. 1661), the goldsmiths of London kept the cash of 
the commercial houses, paid their drafts, and loaned balances in 
hand, paying themselves for trouble and risk out of the interest of 
such surplus as experience showed might be loaned consistently with 
the solvency of the bankers. 

The goldsmith's note or certificate of deposit, says Macaulay, 
might be transferred ten times in a morning, and thus a hundred 
guineas, locked in his safe, did what would formerly have required 
a thousand guineas, dispersed through many tills. Adam Smith 
makes a similar estimate and statement of the advantage derived 
from the note of the deposit banker, as he states it, the substitution 



136 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

of paper is an operation by which £20,000 in gold and silver, perform 
all the service which £100,000 could otherwise have performed. It 
concerns us, however, to observe that the operation of representative 
paper does not actually increase the fund on which it is based just 
as many times as the paper is passed from hand to hand. The whole 
effect is no other than the substitution of a cheap and convenient 
medium for an expensive and comparatively very inconvenient one, 
with the great but not easily computed benefit of the increased 
rapidity of transfer, and the service rendered to so many more re- 
ceivers in the same time. The fund itself is not affected by the rate 
of its circulation. A thousand pounds in either coin or paper is not 
a thing so changeable in value, so nominal, so unreal, that it can be 
increased or diminished at will by any of the incidents of its use. If 
it were so, then, indeed, any sum in coin might be made to answer in 
the transfer of any amount of values. London or New York, by the 
better organization of its circulating system, could make a million of 
pounds or dollars answer the purposes of a thousand or ten thousand 
millions. Nay, to push the proposition to the extreme, any sum, not 
so small as to check the circulation of its certificates or representa- 
tive notes too much, would answer all the purposes of money — the 
whole fund of money — in any community. The effect of rapidity of 
circulation bears relation to the quantity of the thing circulated. A 
hundred making ten revolutions, is not equal to a thousand making 
ten or five or two, in the same time. 

The idea of circulation, with its obvious allusion to the movement 
of the blood in the animal frame, may easily be pushed farther than 
the true analogy warrants. Blood, in the animal economy, is cir- 
culated as the conveyer of nutrient matter for the consumption of 
the textures, and as a stimulant of their vital functions ; for which 
purpose constancy and sufiiciency of supply, that is, a certain rapidity 
of movement is required, and for this a certain amount of propelling 
force. In greatly increased force of propulsion and rapidity of 
movement of the blood, mischiefs result, for which there is no proper 
parallel in the circulation of money in the channels of business. 
Momentum of the blood in the vascular circulation means, besides 
quantity delivered in relation to time, force of impingement, and 
pressure upon the vital organs. There are no such mechanical 
effects attending the changes in the circulation of money, nor any- 
thing corresponding to mechanical plethora or force. The dollar in 



CREDIT MONEY. 137 

great rapidity of currency does not strike its objects the harder, nor 
gorge its receptacles the more, nor, as a result, morbidly exaggerate or 
repress the activities of the things on which it operates, — there is 
no such disease as money apoplexy — and for these reasons, the pro- 
cess called contraction of the currency is not indicated as a remedy 
corresponding to venesection in febrile or inflammatory states of the 
animal body. Money circulation cannot by excess over-stimulate 
industry so as to mar its functions, nor can it arrest them as by an 
apoplectic congestion. Figures of speech must be watched, or they 
get themselves substituted in our reasonings for facts which do not 
exist. It seems to us that both Smith and Macaulay, and many 
another thinker upon the offices of money, have had their fancies 
tricked by making their parables go on all-fours in illustrations of 
very unlike modes of progression. 

We cannot by simple addition or multiplication measure the effect 
of any increase in the rapidity of a money circulation. Ten times 
exchanged is not a ten-fold increase in the use of money, equivalent 
to a ten-fold quantity once moved. The effect of such increase of 
velocity is indeed immense, but under conditions which render it 
incalculable by any arithmetical process. It saves time and labor, 
but it does infinitely more by employing time usefully that must 
otherwise be wasted. It saves money by making money for money ; 
it saves labor by employing it more productively and profitably, and 
all this in various* degrees, from the least up to immeasurable 
amounts, and to effects still more inestimable in their influence upon 
the social life of men. Our objection is to the multiplying, squar- 
ing or cubing results that are absolutely incommensurable, because 
of the reflex error that is made to fall upon the management of 
the factors of the problem. We must take care not to say that 
a thousand dollars circulated ten times, is just equal in its commer- 
cial or industrial stimulus to ten thousand dollars once moved ; for, 
by the same rule we can imagine the impulsive power of any sum 
made equal to any other sum for all purposes in proportioned mul- 
tiples of exchanges, and thus confuse our notion of its proper in- 
herent force. There is an ideal money, or measure, with which logic 
may deal at will, but there is also a substantial money which has an 
intrinsic value, requiring us to treat it as we do any other com- 
modity in use. And we must, if we would think to any purpose, 
keep in mind that the value of this money is the cost of its produc- 
10 



138 QUESTIONS OP THE DAY. 

tioD, or reproduction at the time in wliich it is used in exchange, 
and that wherever it goes, or however often transferred, it carries 
with it just its own inherent or representative value; and that for 
tliis reason, no particular sum of it can be thought of as equivalent 
to any other sum or suras moving faster or slower. And, above all, 
we must not ride to death the loose analogies commonly employed 
in the discussion. 

Now let us see what modification of use and operation a banker 
or deposit bank produces upon the money of a community. In the 
first place, the depositary gathers up the unemployed surpluses from 
every point, as a river collects the thousand rills of its vicinity, and 
gives them the flow and the force of accumulation. The affluents, 
too feeble singly for effectiveness and direction in use, become a tide 
of power, ready for every diversity of productive employment. The 
diflFerence is that between threads and the cable which they com- 
pose ; between the rills of the hill sides and the current that turns 
the mills of the valley. 

Money seeks profit and security. A bank or a banker ofi'ering a 
moderate interest or only safe keeping and prompt delivery, invites 
deposits by the confidence reposed in him, more than by the 
amount of interest allowed; and such advantages to the owner draw 
out the thousand little hoards into an aggregate that, well and wisely 
distributed from a central position, gives life and power and the best 
direction to the enterprise and waiting labor of the whole mass of 
the community. Beside the service of adepts secured by the in- 
terposition of depositaries selected for their acquaintance with the 
business of the country and its requirements, and with the enter- 
prise and abilities of customers, the bankers are generally such as 
are themselves large contributors to the fund which they administer, 
and so, are in all respects qualified for the great business of turning 
the master wheel of the general business machinery. To secure all 
the requisites, many corporators are, as a rule, preferable to a single 
person in this function. From such combinations we have what in 
modern times are called banks of deposit and discount — incorporated 
institutions put under the general control of their stockholders, who, 
in other words, may be termed permanent depositors, taking profits 
instead of interest, and standing as joint debtors to the outside de- 
positors upon interest, and joint creditors to those who borrow the 
money and credit of the institution. 



I 



CREDIT MONEY. 139 

The Bank of Amsterdam, established in A. D. 1609, was the 
earliest considerable institution of this kind which looked to the 
promotion of commerce among the people; its predecessors of the 
twelfth century, in Venice and Genoa, having been chiefly devoted 
to the management of state finances. This bank was guaranteed by, 
and was under the authority of, the city. ' It continued to serve the 
public, and to promote the prosperity of the city for nearly two cen- 
turies. It failed in 1790. With the particular provisions of its govern- 
ment and principles of its management, we are not here concerned, 
nor with the causes which specially led to its establishment, further 
than that the abrasion of the coins previously in use, and the other 
injuries to which they were exposed, put them as a currency at eight 
or ten per cent discount. These things, with all the troubles and 
vexations attending the exclusive use of coins in payment, drove the 
business community into the necessity of contriving a plan by which 
coins should serve as pledges for payment, while the certificates of 
deposit were substituted in transferring the property in the coins, 
without passing the coins themselves from hand to hand, after the 
manner of barbarous commerce. 

A simple depository for money — not necessarily used in the smaller 
afiairs of business, or in transactions with strangers, or persons igno- 
rant of the security of the fund — is in its narrowest sense a place of 
safe keeping where the money is held ready to answer the demand 
of the depositor. If the identical coins, bars, or notes, so deposited, 
were to be returned, and must lie idle till called for, the whole 
operation would be merely a matter of custody, and could produce 
no other effect upon the money function than if the several sums 
were kept under the private lock and key of the owners. Security 
might be increased and some inconvenience avoided, and for these 
advantages the depositor would be justly and necessarily chargeable 
to the value of the service rendered to him; but there follows of 
course the right of transferring the property in the deposited money 
from the owner to others at will, without any movement of the de- 
posited money itself. At this point the business of banking opens. 

Banking, in all its kinds, rests upon this power of transferring 
the right to the thing without touching the thing itself, and here 
the representative certificate, or note, or draft, takes the place of 
the substance; the substance is converted from use as an active 
agent into a pledge; the certificate, or note, or draft, becomes a 



140 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

promise, serving instead of a payment, and serving just as well^ 
but with an ingredient in it unknown to business effected by 
-actual transfer of money in payment — the ingredient of Credit, 
\9-hich implies confidence and fidelity. This credit principle is the 
■faith that removes mountains. It is the miracle power that changes 
water into wine; the multiplying power which feeds five thousand 
men with five loaves, and leaves a basket full for each of the agents 
of distribution. 

A common note of hand, negotiable in its„ terms, payable to 
assignee or bearer, performs the function of money to its nominal 
amount for as many transferees as will accept it in the faith that 
it will be paid by the promisor to the holder. The draft of a de- 
positor, where the like faith is given to him and to the banker, 
serves at every turn instead of the money which it represents, and 
so, the abstract property in the money of a community, gathered 
to<^ether and secured through the operation of market-faith, multi- 
plies indefinitely the service of the great instrument of all produc- 
tion and exchange. 

Faith in the fulfillment of promise, made by the substitute, is 
the power that moves the mass of human business, as the com- 
pound pulley lifts weights vastly disproportioned to the hand power 
which puts it into motion : the indirectness of action in the credit 
system, and in the mechanical machine, being alike evasive of the 
resistance to be overcome, and alike triumphant by virtue of such 
evasion. As a single man lifts a ton's weight, so a single dollar may 
move a thousand in values, by the magical power of adapted in- 
struments. 

How far faith goes in business is apparent when any medium of 
exchange, having no intrinsic value in itself, is employed, — whether 
the instrument be a draft, bank note, note of hand, or a book-of- 
entry charge ; how much further than the actual pledge warrants, 
was shown by the fact that the Bank of Amsterdam carried on its 
immense business for full fifty years after the great bulk of its 
capital had been secretly loaned to the Government of the States 
General, to the East India Company, and to the city of Amster- 
dam; none of which were in condition to make instant restitu- 
tion, and so the bank failed or exploded, though it had been doing 
a business of not less than five thousand millions of dollars a 
year so long as faith held in the security of the deposits or funds 



CREDIT MONEY. 14-1 

on whicli its paper rested. The treasure amassed in its vaults was 
estimated at not less than fifty millions, and the property in this 
value moved by the bank one hundred times a year makes the 
enormous amount of the exchanges here stated. 

We do not know the amount of loss, or the amount of deferred 
payment, with the incident loss of the holders of its paper, when 
the discovery of its mismanagement was made, but for half a ' 
century faith in its solvency had maintained the commerce which 
it conducted without check or loss, or other disadvantage; and, if 
the ultimate losses could have been distributed in fair proportion 
among all its customers during the two centuries of its service to 
their business, they would have been still immensely its debtors for 
benefits received. After all, the Just live by Faith. The higher 
the truth the higher the life, and all the losses by the abuses of the 
principle are in the end as nothing to the issuing benefits. The 
principle at work here, aye, even in the banking system, is that of 
cooperation — the brotherhood of business, the community of risks, 
for the sake of the community of profits ; in which, as in the 
things intended by the Apostle — " Look not every man upon his 
own things, but every man also on the things of others" (Phil, 
ii., 4), the policy of the secular exactly corresponds to that of 
spiritual life, and is put under the same laws ; for, though corpora- 
tions, and especially money corporations, have made themselves a 
proverb of selfishness and injustice, they nevertheless have hold of 
the miracle power, and "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and 
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust," who 
alike faithfully employ the agencies which provide the harvest. 

Banks serving as depositories for the spare money of those who 
confide in their solvency, by adding to the simple safe keeping of the 
fund the further function of discounting the paper of borrowers, 
may employ such amassed deposits in various proportions to the total 
on deposit, according to the range of their business, the strength of 
the stockholders or permanent investers, and the reputation of the 
institutions. There always will be unclaimed balances in the vaults 
of the banks, while they have the public confidence, say from one- 
fourth to one-third of the temporary deposits, and they may lend, 
besides, upon the capital paid in not only the whole amount, but a 
further amount equal to the capital itself in well established institu- 
tions. Here there is a source of profit, which enables them not only 



142 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

to hold money for safe keeping free of charge to the depositors, but 
to invite more investments, and for longer periods, by paying an in- 
terest upon them — less than the rates at which they lend, of course — 
but large enough to induce the holders of idle money to leave it with 
them. Certain banks in our eastern cities, dealing exclusively upon 
their capital and deposits are able to divide ten or twelve per cent 
to the shareholders. One such bank reports above a million dollars 
in its deposit accounts, for which it pays no interest, while the capi- 
tal is HO more than ^400,000. It appears quite possible to make 
large profits above expenses, when it is seen that this bank reports 
loans to the amount of $1,371,592. Here its capital is twice loaned, 
and quite one-half of its deposits besides ; and the bank is thus re- 
ceiving perhaps six per cent upon nearly a million over and above its 
paid-in capital. But its undivided profits amount to a surplus fund 
of one hundred thousand dollars. Including this sum in its efi"ective 
capital, it is doijig business upon above two and a half times the 
amount that it owns. 

But our business is now with the efi'ect of credit added to capital 
by the operation of concentrating money, and by turning their com- 
bined forces into the channels of business. The elements of this 
business are 1st, the accumulation of unemployed money at centres 
of deposit, where all the inconsiderable and inefficient supplies are 
combined into eff"ective forces; 2d, the activity given such funds in 
graduated portions, under the direction of adepts in business, by 
loans to those who will employ them as capital in production ; which 
brings the waiting labor of the country and the raw material lying 
idle into the service of the community; 3d, the enhancement of the 
proper power of the aggregated fund, by the percentage of credit 
which it brings to the bank or banker who administers the fund; 
which, while it is kept within safe limits, is not an unreal capital, but 
an anticipation of the product which it will in good time make 
actual and available,- — a process by which nothing but time is bor- 
rowed, that it may not be wasted ; or, the sum which might be 
realized is made actual by anticipating the capital required to efi'ect 
the answering production. 

This addition which credit adds to capital, by being well based 
upon it, is the grand feature of the policy. In it lies the master 
power, to which the growth of the general wealth is due, and especi- 
ally is it the beneficent element in the business life of men, which 



CREDIT MONEY. 143 

mitigates tlie inequalities of individual wealth. Credit acknow- 
ledges the worth of character. The man who has no other property, 
is made capital in himself, for his own benefit, and talents and in- 
dustry are thus lifted out of the disabilities of poverty into their ut- 
most serviceableness to society. Credit is the motor force that raises 
indigence into wealth, and so converts selfishness into beneficence in 
its effects, and greatly tends to conform the sentiment to the ex- 
cellence of the providential results. This excellent thing, however, 
is much abused. Used in bad faith, it is at the bottom of all the 
pecuniary mishaps of business life. But this is just because it is so 
essential in the economy of business that it must be active for good, 
and is therefore always present and liable to be perverted. 

As much may be said, and said no less foolishly, against liberty — 
moral, political, and social. The means of advancement must be 
capable of mischief, if they have anything of good in them for use. 
Steam power is just as liable to do mischief, and in the very pro- 
portion of its capability for good service. Is there any endowment 
of mind or morals; any instrument subject to human discretion, 
which is not exactly as mischievous as beneficial in its possibilities? 
The sins of the credit system are the best indications of its capa- 
bilities of good. A big evil cannot be made out of a little thing. 
Evils are strictly nothing but abuses. 

A society without a credit system is simply savage. A business 
economy, whose capital should be limited to material property, would 
be a despotism of property, as inflexible as Hindu caste, and as dead 
as the insensate earth, where all that is precious is in the fixity of 
crystals, and all that is common, is as incapable as the rocks in which 
the gold and silver are coffined. 

All of which leads us the further step in the question of currency 
that embraces the bank note ; which in itself differs nothing intrin- 
sically from the check, draft, or certificate of deposit used in trans- 
ferring the property in money on deposit. But it does differ in 
form, convenience, availability, and range of circulation, materially. 
These are very important differences ; for, as money itself has its 
chief serviceableness in its convenience, whatever affects this prop- 
erty is no less important than anything intrinsic belonging to, or 
wanting in it, as a medium of exchange. 

It is obvious that a certificate of deposit, which, like a circulating 
note^ is a promise to pay money, must necessarily be for some specifio 



144 QUESTIONS OP THE DAY. 

sum, and nine times in ten must be unadapted for use except by 
men engaged in considerable business. It is not the thing to carry 
to the market-house, to a railroad office, or a grocery store, nor will 
it meet the little current expenses of every day; and woKst of all, it 
•would not suit for the payment of wages. If broken up into con- 
venient portions for current use, it would be bank notes to all in- 
tents and purposes; and only because a credit or deposit in bank 
needs to be so used, is the evidence of the claim, shaped into notes 
of such denominations as will serve the more general and most needed 
purposes of such credits. The draft of the depositor follows and 
conforms to every variety of transfers desired, and usually is sent to 
the bank to be there changed into notes for common use. 

The transfer of determinate sums, especially of sums larger 
than those most commonly required in every day aflfairs, or among 
people having no mutuality of dealings, or those who cannot, or do 
not, meet in any sort of clearing-house operations, can be very well 
managed by drafts upon deposit banks. These facts help us to see 
more accurately the office of the bank note. It is plainly limited to 
the smaller businesses, to daily expenses, and is, therefore, peculiarly 
the money of the people who live from day to day upon their daily 
or weekly receipts. Banks do not use them among themselves, ex- 
cept for redemption. Merchants use them only for change, anck 
manufacturers, only for payment of wages in their business. Like 
specie they come into service only in the odds and ends of affairs, 
and so, differ from coins only by being so much more convenient for 
use. 

Bank notes are credit money ; but they are substantially limited 
to credit in retail. The wholesale credit money has no such uses 
and needs no such forms. They are, therefore, the money of peo- 
ple of limited means, and of others for limited expenses. They 
make the payments of every day and hour, and are ever on the 
wing. They have not time to earn interest for any owner except 
the issuing bank, and for it only when they are loaned upon time. 
The travels and adventures of a bank note would be such a 
history of society as never yet was written, and never will be. If 
it were as nearly omniscient as it is iibiquitous, government, phi- 
lanthropy, political economy — whatever of thought and endeavor, 
concerned with human affairs, would find in its journal an encyclo- 
pedia of facts, which they all need more than they need anything 



CREDIT MONEY. 145- 

else. The freest play of fancy, in following its wanderings, will 
help somewhat in the estimate of its utility. 

By the hank note, when spoken of in general terms as an instru- 
ment of exchange, is not intended a distinctive designation of 
paper money issued by money institutions, whether corporate or 
incorporate. The term means, in this general sense, the circulating 
note, and as the paper currency of most countries, and at almost all 
times, consists of the paper of such institutions, exclusively, the 
term is sufficiently accurate. But in the experience of the United 
States since the beginning of the late civil war, a supply of circu- 
lating notes rising at one time (April, 1864) to the sum of four 
hundred and sixty millions of dollars, and standing on the first of 
January, 1871, at three hundred and ninety millions, issued by the 
Federal Grovernment, served the same uses to the public as the 
bank notes of ordinary times. These notes, along with a great 
mass of other evidences of national debt, in other forms and for 
greatly larger amounts, were issued and circulated on no other basis 
or pledge for redemption than the faith of the Government. They 
were not even made convertible on demand into gold and silver. The 
only form of redemption on demand specifically promised was the 
engagement to receive them at the Treasury and Sub-Treasuries for 
all public dues, except import duties. Some additional value was 
given them by making them a legal tender in all the business- 
transactions of the people, among themselves and with the govern- 
ment, except in the matter of import duties and interest upon the 
public debt. This money was issued as evidence of indebtedness 
when the expenditures of the nation greatly exceeded its receipts, 
and it must necessarily be continued in circulation until it can be 
either redeemed in specie, or vested in a more permanent form of 
indebtedness, absorbed in taxes, or withdrawn by all these means 
combined. Its quantity, in use for four years running, was more 
than double the amount of paper money in circulation at any time 
before the war; and after ten years its amount is still (1871) one 
hundred and seventy-six millions, or eighty-two per cent greater. 
Beside this great amount of paper, irredeemable on demand, we 
have had an additional three hundred millions of national bank 
notes in use, which, as to basis of redemption and convertibility, 
may be described as in the same predicament; for those national 
banks, thus responsible to the public for three hundred millions of 



146 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

currency, have held nothing besides United States bonds and notes, 
real estate, and a little over twenty-three millions of specie, to meet 
their liabilities to the note holders and to their depositors, which 
last indebtedness aggregates above five hundred millions. 

During nine years specie has been demonetized. It has stood as 
a commodity of the market, ranging in price, through almost the 
whole period, from one hundred and twenty-five to two hundred and 
eighty-five dollars in currency for one hundred in gold. If this 
difi'erence is taken to be depreciation of the currency, then, it was 
passing at a discount of from twenty to sixty-five per cent, through 
the range of fluctuation, which covers quite seven of the last years 
since the suspension of specie payments in December, 1861. 

Here we have the vast business of a nation of over thirty-five 
millions of people, worth twenty thousand millions in capital, during 
a war period involving an expenditure of five thousand millions 
beyond the ordinary business of times of peace, and carrying on, 
besides, a system of internal improvement of unparalleled outlay, 
and all effected through the agency of a paper circulation usually 
styled irredeemable, and, at any rate, for the time inconvertible at 
the par of gold. That war period has been passed quite six years, 
and as yet we have had no revulsion ; no general or remarkable loss 
of individual prosperity; no catastrophe to the general industry; and 
so far from a failui'e, a positive and constant improvement of the 
public credit. This picture, if complete, would show to the full the 
service there is in the circulating note, as a medium for efifecting the 
exchanges of commodities and services, among a people who, in this 
time of trial, have lived through the ordinary experiences of fifty 
years in the space of ten, every day indeed may be counted a week 
of the ordinary business life of a people, and every day of this 
history will tell as a week in the future of the nation. 

Is there anything in all this story, or, is there anything yet to 
come of it, to keep in countenance the financial disesteem of theorists 
for the circulating note ? Is there enough, in all the frauds and 
follies incident to paper money, to balance its services in all times, 
whether they be of war or peace ? 

Surely there is nothing in the nicknames, depreciated currency, 
irredeemable rag money, paper promises, unreal, or the like terms, 
that can settle the policy of commerce and finance as it is concerned 
in them. Paper money is the resort of all nations under severe 



CREDIT MONEY. 147 

trials — let this fact have its due force. There is uo such opprobium 
attached to National, State, or Corporate stocks, though they are all 
debts resting upon the present and prospective solvency of the issu- 
ing party, as much as are national and bank circulating notes, and 
in no case, a whit more secure, or less liable to abuse, or followed by 
any other or lesser mischief; but differing from such stocks in one 
grand particular for the better, in that they are not exportable to 
foreign countries, nor do they carry with them, as stocks do, a profit 
to foreigners, who bear none of the burdens of the country which 
must pay them and their current interest. 

We have already claimed for the circulating note the character of 
being specially the money of the common people, upon whose in- 
dustry the general welfare so largely depends ; and here we think it 
worth adding to its claims, the fact that it has been to us the only 
form of money which in our greatest exigency did not desert our 
service, by going into that of any foreign people. Intelligent 
patriotism will find in this specialty of the greenbacks and the 
national bank notes, a title to the name of American money, while 
philanthropy accords to them besides, the distinctive designation of 
the money of the common people. 

We have seen that a bank of deposit and discount, without issu- 
ing a circulating currency, can well maintain itself upon its profits 
over and above all expenses, and even with an allowance of interest 
equal to one-half or two-thirds of the rate at which it lends its funds 
and credit; and that, even while thus limited in its banking func- 
tions, it serves excellent, even indispensable, uses to the community, 
to the depositors, to the borrowers, and to all the dependent indus- 
tries. We have noticed, also, that it is indifferent to the operations of 
a bank whether it issues its obligations in the form of certificates 
for the varied amounts of the credits it gives, or in the form of cir- 
culating notes of such denominations as best answer the common 
purposes of small money dealings among the people. Whatever 
it promises to pay on demand may take any form which does not by 
contract alter the liability of the issuers. In practice, however, the 
circulating notes expose the bank to a run when any reason arises 
for converting them into specie, whether it be on account of a rise 
in the value of, or increase in the demand for, the precious metals, or 
apprehensions for the solvency of the bank, or doubt of its ability 
to redeem them on the instant of demand. For such reasons, cer- 



148 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

tain banks in the great centres of trade, which can command a suffi- 
cient deposit business, prefer to use no circulation for whose redemp- 
tion they are responsible. 

The profit of a circulation is all in addition to the earnings upon 
capital and deposits, because this profit is made not upon funds held, 
but upon credit loaned, for which the reserve for redemption need not 
be any greater in proportion than upon the deposits. The national 
banks are not required by law to keep inactive more than twenty- 
five per cent of their total demand liabilities, in order to meet them. 
The aggregate loans of twenty-eight city banks (in November, 
18G9) yielded, at the average minimum rate of six per cent per 
annum upon their loans, twenty per cent upon the par of the 
capital, and their aggregate of circulation and deposits amounted to 
$43,269,000 for the payment of which they held but 813,713,000, 
so that these city banks were able, under existing circumstances, to 
lend twice the amount of their capital by the aid of their surplus 
funds, and thirty-three per cent of their deposits. 

Bank deposits, so called, consist to a large amount of mere credits 
on the books of the banks, being their loans to borrowers. It is safe, 
perhaps, to estimate their sixteen millions of capital as serving for 
thirty-two millions of money, another eleven millions of deposits 
(one-third of the total) consisting simply of bank credits, and 
ten millions more of bank debts in the form of circulating notes, 
based upon eleven millions of national debt; and we have in efi"ect 
a sum of actual money consisting of sixteen millions of capital and 
six millions of surplus funds, amounting together to twenty-two 
millions, made to serve as fifty-three millions, or within a fraction 
of two and a half times the amount represented. 

The preceding calculations were made from the bank reports 
of November, 1869. On the 22d of May, 1871, the same banks 
report their capital at sixteen millions, four hundred thousand, 
their loans at fifty-five millions, and deposits at thirty-seven mil- 
lions four hundred thousand. If their aggregate surplus funds 
stood at six millions, they were able to lend their eifective capital 
twice, and twenty-seven per cent of their deposits. 

So much for the mere credit element of the existing money sys- 
tem, and of its capability, in favoring circumstances, of enhancing 
the service of the actual money of the country in its industrial and 
commercial aflairs. 



CREDIT MONEY. - 149 

To resume. The agencies by wticli the service of money is utilized 
by accumulation, multiplied in rapidity of movement, and distrib- 
uted effectively through its focal centres, are in serial order of 
adoption and in rank of service : 1st. The simple depository in 
v^^hich money is held for safe keeping, and returned, as it was de- 
posited, to the owner; the property in it being transferable only by 
actual delivery. 2d. The deposit bank, holding the money and 
issuing negotiable certificates^ or answering drafts, payable to 
■drawee, assignee, or bearer ; by which method not only such 
drafts or certificates become a circulation within a limited range, 
but the depositary may safely issue his notes or certificates to an 
amount considerably exceeding the sum in his vaults, either by dis- 
counts or by accommodation loans; thus not only increasing the 
rapidity of the actual money employed^ but enlarging its force to 
the extent of the margin taken. 3d. A depositary for the spare 
money of the community, making loans upon it, by accommodation, 
and by discount of assigned debts not matured, and by issuance of 
the circulating notes which constitute the paper money currency of 
modern business policy. 

All these businesses distinctively, and the whole of them com- 
bined, in the functions of the banks of the last two or three cen- 
turies, and at the present time almost universally in use, being 
based — in the simplest and earliest form — upon the reputation of 
the depositary: and, in the more complicated and completer form, 
upon actual capital pledged to about one-third of the active amount, 
and for the other two-thirds, upon credit only. 

This being substantially the monetary policy of leading nations, 
and approximately the proportion of capital to credit in the basis 
of the banking system in its most general forms, we are not left at 
a loss to see its advantages, on the one hand, and its risks on the 
other ; nor can there be any doubt of its necessity to the economy 
of productive and commercial industry. 

Business must be done upon trust. It is impossible to conduct, 
or to forward^ the affairs of civilized men, without such trust or 
confidence as expands itself from the simple confidence involved in 
all exchanges of commodities and services, into the most artificial 
and aggregative range of the credit system that has yet been 
adopted. A hand-to-hand exchange system of direct barter is pos- 



150 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

sible or suitable only to such a state of savage society as subsists 
in a hand-to-band battle order of the parties. 

There is no resting place between the absolute distrust of the 
unorganized business of barbarous states, and the most unreserved 
commitment to credit, as the condition of all economic transactions. 
Nothing can be done to any purpose by narrowing the system. 
Everything of improvement is wholly that of providing such 
securities as it admits of. England has employed to exhaustion all 
the sagacity and experience of two hundred years, in contriving 
avoidance of the abuses of her banking system ; yet it is safe to say 
that it is now as liable to objections, and as frequently mischievous 
as in the first year of its institution. Nevertheless, it has never been 
for a moment in danger of being abandoned on account of its evils. 
It has never been admitted that the evils experienced and feared 
were necessary attendants of the monetary system. It has always 
been clearly known that some form of credit-money is indispensable, 
and it is acknowledged, also, that the balance of good and evil has 
ever been in its favor ; for it is seen that immense private and 
national prosperity has, nevertheless, resulted from it. Still there 
hangs over the whole matter a mystery which embarrasses the man- 
agement. Every jar in the working of the machinery provokes 
the best and brightest of the business, and of the thinking, world to 
the most strenuous endeavors at amendment, which are never for 
any long period relaxed ; but as yet without any tolerable approach 
to complete correction. The trouble at the bottom of the whole 
business seems to be this : the money that everybody believes in 
— the money that needs no redemption — the money that has a value 
in itself — is liable to at least two grave complaints : first, it is not, 
and cannot be made, adequate to the work required of it by those 
who would dispense with its substitutes, to escape their insecurity; 
and, second, it is so inconvenient and expensive that the exclusive 
use of it, could it be increased to tolerable adequacy, would be wholly 
unendurable. An exclusive metallic currency in the money market 
would block the wheels of the commodity market, and throw the 
world back to the economic conditions of barbarism. There remains, 
therefore, no choice, but to hold by the credit system, and the only 
hope left is in its amendment in the wisest and most practicable 
way. 

Men must make up their minds to employ unreal money, and 



CREDIT MONEY. 151 

they must ia some way make it as capable and reliable as tbey can. 
The students of the credit system of business cannot fail to see how 
a banking system of some kind or kinds is indispensable to the 
organization, the force, and convenience of industry and commerce, 
and how the general exchange of services is promoted by its agency. 

There follows as obviously these necessary consequences : that 
every locality requires such a money institution — a centre for every 
district where spare money may be deposited for safe keeping; 
where a moderate interest may be made upon such deposits ; where 
mutual debts may be set-oflf against each other ; where the actual 
amount of money gathered may be enhanced in its operation by 
such supplemented credit as the banking institutions can safely 
command ; where adepts in business may distribute the activity of 
such gathered capital and incident credit, through the channels of 
productive industry, wisely and conveniently, by loans or discounts, 
to the general benefit of the community, and the profit of the 
bank ; and, where the use of coin may be spared by the substitu- 
tion of representative circulating notes, of assured soundness, and 
of denominations required in the smaller transactions of every-day 
business. 

We cannot too frequently recur to the leading idea of money — 
that its most essential and central quality of service is in its con- 
venience, as an exchanger of services and commodities. This is 
clear in the abstract, and it rules the policy of the money system 
through all its actual details. Banks being the agencies or ma- 
chinery of the money system, it is clear that as depositories, as 
clearing houses, as reservoirs for the distribution of currency into 
the channels of its proper work, and, as necessary administrators of 
all these offices, they are required to be made of and for vicinages 
of such areas and activities as will bring them home for all their 
uses. Their number should be limited by no other considerations 
than necessary convenience of location, and conformity of expense 
to the service they are to perform. 

The organization of banks best approved by thorough experience 
is that of Scotland, where there are forty banks with three hundred 
and forty branches, or bank offices, distributed over an area equal 
to only two-thirds of that of the State of New York, and with a 
population thirty per cent less. Here there is a banking office 
for every eight thousand three hundred of the people of the King- 



152 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

dom. Suppose these banking houses to be each allotted to equal 
areas, it would make the radius of each banking district but four 
and a half miles; or, if the half of them are located in the cities and 
principal towns, the distribution in the villages and rural districts 
would bring the most distant individual within nine miles of the 
money centre. These offices, however, are doubtless distributed 
with regard to necessity for their service, governed by the condi- 
tions of business which regard the interests of the banks.* 

The striking points in the history of the Scotch banks are their 
freedom from disturbing fluctuations in the amount of the currency 
which they circulate, the immense amount of their deposits when 
compared with those under diflPerent policies in other countries, and 
the exemption they have enjoyed from those general failures which 
have visited England so frequently. 

They allow interest on deposits only about one per cent below the 
current rates, and they lend money freely on bonded securities : a 
plan by which the parties accommodated get their operating capital 
in advance, instead of having to wait until they have the proceeds 
of their enterprise in notes, which they must discount; that is, it is 
not on values produced or earned, but on those to be earned by aid 
of credit, that the borrower receives his accommodation from the 
banks. Besides all these conveniences provided for the business 
and industrious public, they issue notes as low as one pound; for, in 
the whole constitution of the system, and in all its working pro- 
visions, it looks to the convenience and aid of the common people. 
It is not surprising, therefore, that in Scotland there is no horror of 
banks; no distrust, and none of that perpetual endeavor after change 
in policy which agitates England and the United States. 

It is not at all within the scope of our work to treat the banking 

* Scotland has 1 bank to every 84 square miles of territory. 



Pennsylvania 1 " 


" 2.32 


New York 1 " 


" 150 


Massachusetts 1 " 


" .38 


Rhode Island 1 " 


" 21 


Ohio 1 " 


" 296 



The territories divided into equal squares would give a radius or half diameter 

tor- 
Scotland of four and a half miles; to Pennsylvania, seven and a half miles; to 

New York, six and one-eighth miles (but the rural banks would have a radius of 

■seven miles); Massachusetts, three miles; Rhode Island, two and three-tenths 

miles ; OhiO; eight and a half miles. 



CREDIT MONEY. 153 

system. We notice these institutions only as they are, or might be, 
instruments of the money function in its bearings upon the general 
welfare. Any wider view of the subject involving them, would 
overtask our powers, and only exhaust the patience of those to whom 
this work is specially addressed. 

One other specialty may properly be noticed here : the popularity 
of the " greenback" circulation, for many reasons which need not be 
mentioned, inclines large nimabers of those who are concerned, or, 
who concern themselves, with the supposed advantages of national 
banks, to recommend some modification of our present currency 
system, in such manner as would make the government the source of 
the supply of our circulating notes. This proposition, if we are right 
in our apprehension of the machinery and uses of banks, is every 
way objectionable. There was no fault, under the circumstances 
which required the issue of the government notes, and their con- 
tinuance in circulation, or in putting the debt of the nation into the 
form of a circulating medium ; but the government cannot make of 
its exchequer, or sub-offices, depositories for the inactive money of 
the people ; it cannot lend, as business everywhere requires, upon 
individual securities, or discount the business paper afloat. Two 
thousand or three thousand banking houses would be required for 
the purpose of accommodating the localities with convenient places 
of deposit and loans. The government could not appoint and 
supervise the administrators of such a trust. It cannot, and will not, 
be trusted or burdened with this business in all its required breadth 
and action. Corporations of the vicinage alone are competent. 
Their circulating paper can be secured to the holders, absolutely, as 
is proved by experience of the national banking i^ystem, now some 
years under trial }* and for all other matters of complaint the pub- 

*The national banking law, for which we are indebted to Mr. Secretary Chase, 
secures the redemption of the circulating notes absolutely, but leaves their conver- 
sion into coin dependent upon the general resumption of specie payments. The 
government supplies the notes to the sixteen hundred banks, organized under the 
law, in a certain proportion to their several capitals, and upon the security of 
national bonds, deposited in the federal treasury in the ratio of one hundred dol- 
lars to every ninety dollars worth of such notes emitted. Thus the circulation of 
■ each bank is limited to ninety per cent of the securities pledged far its redemption. 
On failure of the bank, the United States Treasury redeems them, if demanded, 
and sells the pledged securities to reimburse itself. The note holder is made in 
every event safe against any loss, for the notes of a broken bank are just as good 
11 



154 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

lie and the authorities must fiad either complete relief, or such miti- 
gation as the subject admits of. A government might indeed 
provide paper circulation, but it cannot distribute it directly among 
the people. It cannot be a bank of deposit, discount, and issue. If 
it has the wisdom to devise, and the authority to establish, the re- 
quired instrumentalities, its powers and capabilities can go no 
further; and, as there is nothing in the proper offices of banks 
which can be dispensed with, they must be conformed as nearly as 
may be to this necessity, and the risks and injuries attending them 
must be borne till removed or abated as evils accompanying an in- 
dispensable service to society, which withal, leave behind a vast 
balance of benefits. 

The inference from all these views seems both easy and inevita- 
ble, that banking cannot rightly be made a monopoly, as it is by 
law in the United States, and by contract in England and France ; 
and in eS"ect, by limitation of the circulation and its arbitrary dis- 
tribution, as under the national banking system of the United 
States, without inducing many of the abuses complained of, and, at 
the same time, disappointing the intention, perverting the action, 
and crippling the agency of the great money function, upon which 
all business prosperity and stability depend. 

It is to be hoped that the experience of generations will soon 
cure the public of the notion that the instant convertibility of the 
circulating note is the one thing to be secured, at the expense of 
whatever uses the banking system serves — cured, if not by a 
sounti view of the general uses of banks, at least by the uniform 
failure of all attempts, contrivances, and safety-guards employed to 

as those of a sound one, and the notes of all the banks, wherever situated, are of 
uniform value throughout the United States. 

The grand fault of the system is in its restriction of the amount of the circula- 
tion allowed. As this provision at first stood, the amount being taken, the benefits 
of the law are monopolized. The amount should be limited only by the amount 
of the securities pledged for the redemption of the notes, and so be practically 
limited only by the requirements of business. In other words, banking should be 
as free as other businesses and, especially, free to all localities. With respect to 
the security of depositors; that is left, as it should be, to the care of the depositors 
themselves, and they are not permitted to affect the solvency of the circulating 
notes, as under the old state banking system they so frequently did. Depositors 
have no just claim for security from the government. Theirs is a private business 
with the banks. For the authorized circulating money, the Government is every 
way responsible, and it is also eminently capable of fulfilling its trust. 



CREDIT MONEY. 155 

accomplisli that one thing, endeavored in so many ways, at sa 
great losses and catastrophies, as have always awaited the occasion 
for discrediting the attempt. 

The charter of the Bank of England means nothing, and intends 
nothing specially, except a desperate effort, by desperate means, to 
prevent a suspension of specie payments. It went into this ser- 
vice in the year 18-14, and, behold, the anti-suspension provision 
has been already three times suspended by the violent intervention 
of the privy counsel of Her Majesty, under the compulsion of the 
very exigencies which it was designed to prevent or overrule. Sir 
Robert Peel, by and with the advice of the "sound currency" 
savans of the realm, believed he was constructing a safety valve for 
the paper-money medium of the nation ; yet, in the first and every 
subsequent exigency that put it into operation, it turned out to be 
a trap, that had to be let up and set again, to serve again only so 
long as it should be useless, and, therefore, harmless. The fact 
that the Scotch banks had gone safely and steadily through the 
crisis of 1793, and that of 1825, when so many of the provincial 
banks of England were swept off", and not a single Scotch bank 
gave way, and the failure of all devices everywhere, and at all 
times, to maintain the redemption on demand of bank paper, when 
that is made the master idea of the machinery, might induce 
theorists and financiers to look somewhat more deeply and broadly 
into the general question. Convertibility is a convenience, but it is 
not the essence of the circulating note. Solvency is quite another 
thing, and this secured, there is no people under the sun who will 
not require the note, even at the depreciation which it suffers 
during the suspension of specie payments, in preference to doing 
without it. It is probable that if everything else in the banking 
system were well cared for, the ultimate solvency of the notes 
secured, and the whole system set free from the restraints that are 
imposed solely with the view to keep the paper at the par of gold 
and silver, the convertibility would take care of itself, or, at worst, 
prove a matter of trivial importance. 

The evils of a depreciated currency, when admitted to the full, 
are as nothing to the lack of a money supply that keeps productive 
industry active to the full. Creditors paid in it lose in proportion 
to its diminished purchasing power, but the mischief stops there; 
and, what is the difference between the normal and the nominal 



156 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

value of debts, to the losses suffered by the interruption, diminu- 
tion, or suspension of a nation's industry ? If half a year's labor 
is lost in the United States for want of active capital to keep it 
employed, and this is valued at but half a dollar a day, there is a 
loss to those who can bear no loss without suffering, of three hun- 
dred and ninety millions by five millions of people, and a corre- 
sponding loss to twenty or thirty other millions of people. Will a 
ten, twenty, or thirty per cent decline in the value of debts, to those 
who may be presumed able to bear it, be a greater evil ? The danger 
of the arrest of production and of trade, in England, has three 
times in twenty years driven merchant, manufacturer, and artisan 
to pray government to give them irredeemable bank notes instead. 
And the greenback, that does not even promise to pay its face 
value on demand in gold or silver, or in anything else but taxes 
and old debts, has won for itself, in the loyal States of America, 
an everlasting remembrance in praise and blessings. 

There is mystery in money, there is magic in it. Abstractly every- 
body admits this, but in specialties, touching its movements and 
effects, hardly one man in a thousand will refrain from repairing 
the machine, though he knows that the regulator and the motor 
force is to him inscrutable. 

If any one doubts this, so broadly stated, we would suggest that 
he tries his divining power upon tight and easy money markets, 
alternating every week ; on the premium on gold without alteration 
in the volume of the currency — highest when the national debt was 
less than half its maximum amount, and declining in an inverse 
proportion to the measure of the public burdens. Or why, with- 
out any perceptible change in the securities, it sells at 135, 165, and 
125 within two months ? Perhaps all these questions could be 
disposed of without being answered, if this other question were 
answered — why should gold gamblers be allowed to fix the standard 
for measuring the value of national notes at will ? 



CHAPTER XII. 

COMMERCE. 

Commerce : Faulty definitions of the term. — Whately, MoCulloch. — Territorial 
division of labor. — Production subordinated to trade.— Benefit of division of 
labor exaggerated. — Griorification of trade. — Fundamental errors of English 
Economists; practical and theoretical mischiefs resulting. — Idols of the Den. — 
Bias of nationality in the philosophy of business affairs. — Commerce is direct 
exchange, Trade is exchange through intermediates. — Trade disintegrates. 
Commerce develops the man and the community. — Monstrous results of the 
Trade theory. — The Trader's policy of production. — Rule of climatic law. — 
Trade law. — Trader's definition of political economy— Its true meaning and 
scope. — False claims of foreign trade; spoliation its aim, in conformity with 
the spirit of the times ; effected formerly by force, now by fraud. — The motive 
borrows the credit of the good in the results. — Association without freedom is 
domination, not commerce. — Commerce is immediateness of intercourse and 
exchange. — Impediment of space. — Home commerce might sufBce in the United 
States. — The policy of commerce is a national, not a cosmopolitan concern. — 
Value of imports before the Rebellion ; value of domestic exports. — Commerce 
of the East and West loyal States in 1862. — Estimate of total domestic ex- 
changes. — Consumption of domestic, ten to one of foreign, products. — Differ- 
ence between economic, and market, value. — Foreign goods displace home 
labor. — Statistics of trade imperfect — official figures unsafe.— Data and differ- 
ences of European authorities. — United States census reports — their defects — 
they aiford only a basis for approximate estimates. — Proportional market value 
of foreign and domestic products. — Difference of economic value in transporta- 
tion and trade profits. — More than half our imports give no employment to 
domestic labor and capital in further production. — Economic value of foreign 
imports; they give no employment to domestic labor and capital in farther pro- 
duction. — Economic value of foreign imports as only one to twenty-three of 
domestic products. — Kinds of foreign imports which exclude home industry, 
enumerated.-7-Their cost, fifty-seven per cent of our total imports. — Balance of 
international trade — unfavorable balance, not in the market value, but in the 
kinds of commodities exchanged — the mischiefs. — Difference in kinds and 
values of labor resulting from different kinds of imports. — Educating and 
enriching labor. — Money values not the guide in international trade. — Charac- 
teristics of legitimate trade. — Sound international trade is supplementary, not 
competitive. — Unrestricted trade in natural products, only across climates. — 
Cosmopolitan and national economists. — Political economy not a science, but a 
system of expediencies — it has no universal or permanent principles — its scien- 

157 



158 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

tific pretensions everywhere at fault. — Competition the regulator of disorders in 
the trader's school of economists — Bastiat. — Trade in manufactures and works 
of art. — All foreign trade compulsory — there is no such thing as free foreign 
trade. 

We have exact and exhaustive definitions of the term commerce 
in dictionaries — verbal defiuitions ; and, in the authors concerned 
with the subject in its practical relations, moral, political, and eco- 
nomical, much of effort at logical exposition and elucidation, but 
withal, less certainty of meaning and availableness in use than 
ought to be secured. It is among the terms of art, in the system 
or systems of political economy of which Archbishop Whately says : 
" hardly one of them has any settled and invariable meaning, and 
their ambiguities are perpetually overlooked." (Elements of Logic, 
p. 354.) That the subject is not as clear in the minds of the au- 
thorities as one would naturally expect, is plainly intimated by the 
care that J. Stuart Mill takes to settle the respective claims of 
Ricardo and Torrens to the 'authorship or discovery of one of the 
causes which determine international exchanges. The authorities 
have, therefore, been very lately illuminated upon that particular 
point ; and their high appreciation of a very small matter shows how 
little command of the question they had previously obtained, and 
suggests, besides, that it may not yet be thoroughly mastered. 

J. R. McCulloch speaks of commercial intercourse as beginning 
to grow among men as soon as individuals cease to supply themselves 
with all the products of labor required for ther own consumption. 
He adds — " it is only by exchanging that portion of the produce 
raised by ourselves that exceeds our own consumption for portions 
of the surplus raised by others, that the division of employments 
can be introduced, or that different individuals can apply themselves 
in preference to different pursuits." From this point of departure — 
from which he departs never to return again — he passes instantly 
to the consideration of foreign trade, either distant geographically 
or internationally, and is thenceforth occupied exclusively with what 
he terms the territorial division of labor, which he says has contrib- 
uted more than anything else to increase the wealth and accelerate 
the civilization of mankind. In the division of the topics treated 
under the general title, he gives the first place in order and rank to 
the agents of trade — the mercantile classes ; and the necessity for 
the wholesale and the retail dealer, is pushed to its last consequence, 



COMMERCE. 159 

in whicli trade is the substance, and production is only its accessory 
or minister in civilized life and human progress. Treating of Trade 
lie is so occupied with the advantages of distance in commerce that 
he thinks "the territorial division of labor, if possible, even more 
advantageous than its division among individuals," and of the bless- 
ings of the latter he is so well assured, that he assigns to it no limits 
beyond which it may be injurious; simply because the more labor 
is divided the more production is increased and cheapened, and the 
more subjects are supplied for trade, and the larger space spread 
for its extension. Unconsciously, it may be, and all the more irre- 
fl^ctively, the writer's imagination takes wing and prose poetry is 
pressed into the service of admiration of trade ; and roads, canals, 
steam carriages, all navigable streams, coast and open ocean high- 
ways, are glorified; and even such centralization of industries as 
conduces most to the infinitesimal division of handicraft occupations, 
is cited as elements of this most beneficent of all human functions — 
commerce wholesale and retail ! Everything is cheapened, every- 
thing distributed, everything is first carried away from everybody, 
everything is afterwards brought back to everybody, and trade 
grows prodigiously. Besides, trade gives competition all possible 
influence. Everybody is put to working with and against everybody 
else, and the author is right in concluding an enthusiastic outburst, 
"all is mutual, reciprocal, and dependant," if he will only allow us 
to remember that the same may be said of a chain-gang or of a 
bench of galley-slaves, and to reflect a little before we join in his 
exultation. For we cannot help interjecting the question : is man 
made for products and trade, or are products and trade made for 
man ? Rightly answered, it may appear that the most important 
element has here been left out of the question, or considered only 
as subsidiary to things which are properly subordinate. If wealth 
were understood to be weal, well-being, welfare, instead of finding 
in the term nothing but vastness of capital accumulated, the politi- 
cal economy of Great Britain would take another character than it 
bears, and would lose that bias for trade, especially foreign trade, 
which poisons every spring of thought in all its favorite authors, 
politicians, and statesmen. But it would seem that there is a men- 
tal infatuation which, like that of alcoholic intoxication, believes in 
the benefit or necessity of that stimulation which enervates the body 
politic. The directly resulting pauperism, expatriation, rebellion, 



160 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

and all forms of discontent and resistance, teach nothing corrective 
to a philosophy which holds that " man is a drug and population a 
nuisance," and makes them so by addressing all its working influ- 
ences to the promotion of trade at the expense of the human instru- 
ments which supply its stores for the aggrandisement of traffic. 

England, judged by the workings of her economic policy, is of 
all countries in the world, least capable of furnishing a theory of 
political economy for the guidance of any people who would escape 
the wretched practical results of her system. Men are everywhere 
so prone to worship the idols of the den in which they are bred that 
natibnality clings to doctrine in all spheres of practical affairs, and 
the flavor of nativity hangs persistently over every dish they cook 
for the guests at their feasts of philosophy. The economic doc- 
trines of an island that depends for its prosperity upon the industrial 
colonization of all the rest of the world, must needs tend to the 
required subservience of its tributaries; and no moral or mental 
integrity of individuals, under such influences, will save the propa- 
gandists from the vices of thought bred into them by the business 
system in which they live and move and have their being. 

If these free thoughts suggest to the reader the names of Torrens, 
Ricardo, McCulloch, Cobden, Bright, and Mill, we can only ask that 
the process of separating the good fronj the evil be dispassionately 
performed, and the presumptions of fair reasoning be allowed due 
weight, until a careful scrutiny shows the truth or error of thi» 
exception to the nationality of a cluster of honored names, which 
it must be admitted, are at least remarkably national in matters of 
commercial policy. 

It would be well if distinctive terms could be employed for the 
exchanges of services and commodities effected by men immediately 
and directly, and that other manner of exchange, made through 
intermediates, middle men, agents, or merchants. 3Ir. Carey uses 
the word commerce for the exchanges of services, products and 
ideas by men loiili their fellow men, in exclusion of all interme- 
diate agents; and employs the word Trade to distinguish exchanges 
made by intermediates /b/- the principals — com?jierfe, describing the 
most direct interchanges, trade, the more or less indirect. The two 
terms have hitherto been so constantly used interchangeably that a 
difference of application and force cannot be easily made familiar. 
And the further difficulty arises from the customary use of the word 



I 



COMMEKCE. 161 

commerce, in application to the more indirect trade, and tlie greater 
distance between the parties, while the better use would be exactly 
the reverse. 

The difference in the respective consequences of the more, and 
the less direct exchanges ought to be kept clearly in view, and 
must be, if we would understand the subject advantageously. The 
mutuality, reciprocity, and interdependency of exchange, limited in 
its aims to products and trade, as its central object, and driven to its 
utmosts, in the confidence that the governing principle leads only to 
perfection, and cannot, therefore, be mischievous, even in its ex- 
tremes — that is, when its results are piled up in forms of material 
wealth — will work very differently from the leading idea that all 
discipline and development should be directed to the growth of in- 
dividuality, as well as to association, in the societies of men. As- 
sociation could be effected in the trader's meaning of the term, and 
up to the entire scope of his purpose, by the process of disintegrating 
the individuals concerned in its operations, so far as to suppress all 
that is common and general in men^ for the purpose of enhancing 
the special in each. The division-of-labor doctrine, while it does 
provide for the most effective employment of the varied aptitudes of 
the mass of laborers, may be pushed, under the governing idea of 
productiveness, to an excess which would change men into a distor- 
tion of their physical powers, not unlike to monomania in mind. 
For an example: a noble-looking old man, employed in one of the 
cutlery factories of Sheffield, has been for forty years employed 
exclusively in counting twelve, during twelve hours of every day. 
Doubtless, the knives and forks were the more accurately and 
expeditiously assorted in dozens, by this sort of automatic life of the 
man; but what was the reflex effect upon the man himself? Trade 
was promoted, but do heaven and earth depend upon trade ? The 
man that spends his life in pointing brass pins, will never learn, 
because he need not, and had better not learn, even how the head i& 
made or put on. Such division of labor drives him back into the 
single element of the work which is arbitrarily apportional to each 
among a dozen or twenty hands, and lo, a pin is produced ; and all 
men wonder at the miracle. Every second of time is pin-pricked 
into infinitesimals, and the multiplication table breaks down under 
the prodigious results ! 

This process may be pushed to the disintegration of the proper 



162 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

human nature, so as to throw in turn every faculty out of gear, and 
so, out of use, until a man is decomposed, and a pin-pointer is pro- 
duced ! This is the trader's policy of production ; but he does not stop 
here in the work of mincing the mutualities of men, dissolving them 
into their ultimate atoms, and classifying and organizing them by 
the affinity of their fractions or fragments. He carries the segrega- 
tions forward from the division of labor among individuals into a 
territorial division corresponding to it. He finds a hill-side that is 
better for pasturage then for corn-growing, and he provides for its 
exclusive appropriation and employment according to this one of its 
adaptations ; the people of that hill-side must make beef and mutton, 
and nothing else, because these are its best spontaneous products; 
and the men of that division must limit themselves in their pursuits 
and their studies to that one art, else they might diminish the 
traffic arising from the scientific division of labor, according to 
territory. Other men, elsewhere, can make blankets cheaper, be- 
cause they have no territory at all to work, and everybody else must 
abstain from their alio ted specialty of labor. Men are nowhere to 
be the masters, but everywhere the slaves, of circumstances, and in 
these unvaried and unvariable conditions are found the natural 
laws of commerce ! 

If these theorists would but limit the necessar}'- territorial ex- 
changes of men to the unavoidable ; if they would but say that the 
north- temperate zone must get its spices and ivory from the 
tropics, and the hot climates must draw their ice from the colder, 
and always use the word must, and say they should, only because they 
imist, they would have a clean strong grip of a natural law; but 
when they bring upon us a trade law which looks ever to cheapness 
of commodities, and pays no regard whatever to the conditions of 
human welfare, we must insist upon some other meaning and purpose 
of legitimate commerce. 

Abundant provision for trade as a civilizer, wealth-producer, 
educator, and organizer of the world, exists in the naturally necessary 
interchanges of products, without arbitrarily dividing all the like 
regions of the earth into totally unlike pursuits, and leaving it to 
transportation to unite them only in the market places, while it 
severs them into distinct and difierent factors or multipliers every- 
where else. But the very definition of Political Economy by the 
authorities who write in the dominant interest of trade, amounts 



COMMERCE. 163 

to nothing more in substance than that given by Archbishop 
Whately, catallacties, or a science of exchanges, which is very 
far from the idea that it is concerned with man in his efforts 
for the maintenance and improvement of his condition, or as techni- 
cally defined, " a system of the laws which govern man in his efforts 
to attain the highest individuality, and the greatest association with 
his fellow men" (Carey, Social Science, vol. i., p. 63). It is 
claimed for foreign trade that it is a peacemaker among the nations. 
This is not its history in the past. Maritime trade, until within the 
period of two centuries last past, was simply what we now call 
piracy. Its occupation was pillage of chattels, enslavement of men, 
and extension of dominion in the interest, and for the extension 
of trade. The nobility and gentry of civilized Europe held any 
form of industry degrading which was not carried on by murder and 
robbery. Sir Walter Raliegh went abroad upon the high seas with 
Elizabeth's commission as a privateer ;, and John Newton served as 
chaplain in a fleet of slave-traders. The morals of maritime trade 
were the last to be reformed ia the means it employed and the 
policy it pursued in international relations. When the age of 
violence had passed, trade long stuck to its purpose, aim, and end. 
Pillage took the name of international commerce, and made its 
predatory invasions of the feebler nations without force of arms, by 
the force of traffic. The superior arms of the strongest are now 
only occasionally employed to make way for the superior skill of 
hands ; and invasion of foreign labor markets is effected by pacific 
means in lieu of the older and ruder warlike invasions, breaking 
down the defenses of industry by other acts not less effectual than 
those which use powder and bayonets in the negotiation. 

Changing the method with the changes of the times, and so 
avoiding conflicts with the spirit of the age and the common law of 
nations, the leading commercial nation of the world is getting rid 
of her colonial dependencies, and rapidly changing her foreign 
political subjects into profitable customers. After the suppression 
of Napoleon, for the first time in her history, she maintained a peace 
of thirty years. An episode in the Crimea, and an occasional 
insurrection in India, have merely thrown a few ripples into the 
pacific current of her foreign affairs ; for it is settled that she no 
longer aims at the rank of a first-rate power, having seen that the 
policy of peace is the true line of conduct for the maintenance and 



164 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

promotion of her commercial prosperity. The London Times struck 
the key-note when it declared that England lives in a glass house, 
and explained the figure of speech by admonishing her that she can- 
not pull a trigger without riskiog the loss of a customer. Peace 
with her, means plenty; aud trade, she calls commerce, for the hap- 
pier allusions which the terms can be made to convey, and there- 
upon claims credit for all the possible beneficence that may associate 
itself with a world-wide trade intended primarily to make her the 
"workshop of the world." 

Voyages of discovery in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as 
well as the crusades of the twelfth and thirteenth, claimed as their 
purpose, and are still credited with, all the incidental advantages to 
the pagan world which Providence has educed from the evil of 
their motives and of the means employed with very different aims. 

Foreign commerce is thoughtlessly taken to mean association ; 
and such association to imply reciprocity, mutuality, aggregate 
helpfulness, organization, unity, brotherhood, aud all excellent 
things in the charities of art and life. But association does not of 
itself secure any such commerce or interchange of helpfulness. An 
army is an association most effectively organized; but, at what 
expense to the individuals is the effect of combination secured! 
Military authorities hold that the nearer men in arms can be re- 
duced to machines, the better for discipline and for battle. Indi- 
viduality is here utterly sacrificed for unity; combination is not the 
free play of the natural relations and dependencies; the mutuality 
is nothing but cohesion, and accordingly, the bread of bondage is 
rations, bloodshedding is bravery, and the degradation of manhood 
must be baptized glory. Let us not be deceived by words. Slavery 
may lurk in human relations which do not obtrude the auction 
block ; and combinations may be crushed masses, though made of 
living men. Aggregation is not association. A sand stone is only 
a hardened mass of granulated deposits, not a vitalized organism. 
No union or communion or interchange of men meets or fulfills the 
purpose of human existence, or provides for its well-being, that does 
not give free play to all the faculties of each individual, and pro- 
mote their growth. In the light of this truth, commerce has its 
true intent and meaning. 

Now let us look at our subject with eyes wide open to all its 
essential aspects. 



COMMERCE. 165 

Its central and supreme meaning is in its directness and immedi- 
■ateness, whicli must rule all our thouglits and all our endeavors 
-concerning it. Correspondence by letters is an abridgment of 
time, but the gain is oiFsefc by the difference in favor of personal in- 
tercourse. Quickened by the electric telegraph, it becomes instant- 
■aneous, but still not personal, or in the true sense, immediate. The 
tone and the touch, and the sympathetic adaptation of the parties, 
are lost, and a message may be an offense or a failure, which a look 
or a gesture would relieve or remove. Distance in place is in the 
way, though that of time be annihilated. The communication is 
still indirect. Mineral magnetism is not the equivalent of that 
which is mental or personal. Steam and electricity are only good 
against time, they are powerless upon space. If time were annihi- 
lated space would still be as great an impediment in itself as ever. 
For all the purposes of commerce it is space that must be overcome. 
Neighborhood in place is its only avoidance ; and, in whatsoever 
relative locality is important, whether in the commerce of ideas, feel- 
ings, or the exchanges of services and their products, nearness is 
the grand desideratum. In economic affairs therefore we must give 
'the first place to the 

COMMERCE OP HOME. 

And first of its magnitude, its value, and its necessity : 

In such a country as ours, or any other as favorably situated 
and as well provided with materials, labor, and art, it would not be 
too much to say that, for life and its chief necessities, we have all 
that we need, and could, without much detriment or diminution of 
progress, dispense with foreign trade altogether. 

National or political boundaries do not correspond to geographical 
or climatic divisions, but commerce is, in one aspect, a national con- 
cern, and must be so considered. 

Taking the time before the war of the Rebellion for the sake of 
seeing the relative value of home and foreign trade, undisturbed, we 
find the appraised value of all our foreign imports and exports of 
merchandise, specie exports excluded, at the highest, fall short of 
$652,000,000. The consumption of foreign imports in the highest 
year (1860) per head was $10.80. The value of the domestic ex- 
ports were very exactly $10 per head. What are these amounts to 
'the value of the domestic exchanges of the year ? 



166 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

We have no official reports of the domestic trade of the several 
portions of the Union which usually interchange products with 
each other. The nearest approach to a very partial estimate is that 
published by the Treasury Department in 1863, in which the 
transit trade of the Allegheny Mountains and a line corresponding 
to the central ridge extending northward to the Canada border, 
and southward no farther than the Potomac River, or the northern 
boundary of Virginia, puts the value of merchandise transported in 
the trade between the Eastern and Western States in 1862 at eleven 
hundred and thirty-eight millions. In this calculation nothing is 
embraced but merchandise carried eastward and westward at least 
three hundred miles, or only such goods as were carried from and 
between the Atlantic seaboard and the Mississippi Valley. Nothing 
that was carried north and south, between the Atlantic States — 
nothing exchanged among themselves by the Western and North- 
western States. The usual inter-state trade of the Confederate States, 
south and southwest, and between them and the north, east, and 
west of the loyal States, were, of course, omitted ; those Southern 
States being at the time at war with the loyal Union States. This 
eleven hundred millions worth of through transit in a single direc- 
tion (East and West) is but as the drop of a bucket to the total 
domestic exchanges in a time of peace and active business. 

We may approach the total value of the commodities exchanged 
at home by the fact that the products of industry in the Union for 
the year 1860 were worth four thousand millions. 

The imports for consumption of that year were three hundred 
and thirty-five millions, or equal only to one-twelfth of the domes- 
tic products. Not all these domestic products, however, went into 
market. The producers may be taken to have consumed one- 
fifth, yet most of the goods thus consumed, though not sold for 
money, were in fact exchanged for services of families and em- 
ployees, especially in agriculture, which now employs nearly half 
the laborers of the nation. 

We are warranted in our calculation that the domestic commerce 
is, in money price, as ten to one of the foreign articles consumed in 
the country. We do not, however, measure the economic value by 
the market prices of the products of industry and traffic. Far 
from it. In the United States but little raw material i? imported — 
but little that aff"ords the further profits of converting skill, or em- 



COMMERCE. 167 

ploys labor and capital in reproduction. Nine-tenths of the mer- 
chandise imported goes directly into consumption. The wines and 
liquors, the sugar, coffee, tea, jewelry, fancy dry goods, like the 
toys and trinkets, never take the character of manufacturing stock 
or materials. And such goods as iron, woolens, and cottons rather 
displace home labor than furnish it with any form of employment. 

The adepts in statistics, who occupy themselves especially with 
the production and consumption of nations, and with their accumu- 
lations of wealth, labor and belabor their subject in all possible 
ways, and failing of such agreement in results among themselves as 
might commend their conclusions to the inexpert among their 
readers and students, usually leave no confident or definite convic- 
tions upon the common understanding. The difficulty lies in the 
want of reliable data for their calculations. In the matter of 
foreign trade custom-house reports approach the truth, when quanti- 
ties are given, nearly enough for the statistician's use ; but where 
only values are given, besides the fluctuations in prices, which 
make wide departures from stable measurements or standards, 
frauds also greatly increase the errors of fact. So that even among 
the items of official authorization there is a damaging insecurity — 
a tickly-bender support for the footsteps of inquiry. 

But in the investigation of home production and trade they are 
all afloat. The European authorities who have, or ought to have, 
the best means of information, are accustomed to make up their 
estimates from their tax registers, such as excise duties, incomes, 
probates of decedents' estates, insurances, export values, invest- 
ments in stocks, and the like evidences or indications of business 
affairs. The distances and difficulties which lie between such data 
as these, and the results aimed at, it will be perceived are very 
great, and the worth of the results, like the processes by which 
they are obtained, is a matter of estimation. That they lack 
assurance is evident from the fact that the highest authorities are 
very far apart. One set, following Mr. Grladstone in English 
wealth statistics, takes the income tax as the best basis ; another, 
after McCuUoch, relies upon the value of the exports to foreign 
countries ; and a confused crowd of writers, such as Colquhoun, 
Porter, and Levi, attach themselves to such other indicise as they 
can find among the various signs of business activities. A moment's 
reflection will show how inadequate and unsafe all these means of 



168 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

calculation must be. The income tax, for instance, is always, and 
in all countries, infamous for its fklselioods and frauds ; besides, if 
it were faithful and true, according to the intent of the law, it 
never goes beyond the minimum subject to assessments; as in 
England, nothing below £100 per annum, and in the United States 
below 11,000, is embraced, which in both cases leaves out the mass 
of the earnings of the people, or at least the earnings of the mass 
of the people. Then again, such a basis as the value of the exports to 
foreign countries, on account of the vast variations of actual prices, 
the indifference of customs officers to the declared value of goods 
not charged with any export duty, the customary under valua- 
tions of such as are subject to ad valorem duties in the ports to 
which they are consigned, and the multitude of other caprices and 
tricks incident to trade, only affords at best comparative esti- 
mates of such foreign ti:ade, and has nothing further to do with 
domestic production, and nothing at all with the home consump- 
tion. Like thermometers, they might give, if they would, the rela- 
tive degrees of movement, but they can show nothing as to the 
alsolute quantities or forces on which they rest. They have their 
arbitrary zero, freezing, temperate, and boiling or bubble points 
marked upon the mercurical indicator, and so, some guess may be 
had at the changes, but no knowledge is afforded of the absolute 
condition of the thing that is changed. 

In the United States, we have another method which has the 
absolute for its object. Once in ten years we have an official valua- 
tion or appraisement of the accumulations of property, and of the 
products of the next preceding year; but these assessments are 
made in the first instance by a thousand different officials, who fix 
prices and quantities upon such an immense variety of grounds that 
the census bureau must revise the returns by the lights which its 
chief officers can command. The estimates, averages, and guesses 
of all these agents afford us results which we are not innocent 
enough to believe in. 

For a statement, in detail, of the sources of error in the decennial 
census reports, and an estimate of their amount, the reader is re- 
ferred to our fifth chapter, (a«#e, p. 50). 

Notwithstanding all these errors, which are all errors of defect, 
and of large proportion to the true values, we get a fragment of 
fact, a point or fraction of basis, from which we can restore the 



COMMERCE. 169 

parts that are wanting sufficiently well for some purposes; and 
among the rest, for the inquiry now in hand, a safe estimate 
may be made by taking care to keep within clearly reasonable 
limits. 

Under these cautionary guides, we take four thousand millions of 
dollars to be the value, in first hands, of our present annual pro- 
duction of commodities. About the half of these are agricultural 
and mining products. The half of these last are raw material for 
our manufactures. The whole maybe analyzed thus: one thousand 
millions worth of agricultural products go without much further 
change of form into consumption. Upon the other thousand mil- 
lions worth of agricultural and mining materials, labor and capital 
are employed which double their ultimate value. (The average value 
of the raw material of manufactures is given by the census of 1860 
at 53.26 per cent of the value of the products.) This gives us a 
rough start of three thousand millions — to which we may fairly add 
a third for the values of products excluded by the minimum rule of 
the census takers, and labor otherwise employed in production and 
not embraced in any census schedules. 

This surely is safely within the limits of our actual production of 
commodities in the year 1860, which is twelve times the value of 
our foreign imports for consumption (4000 -4- 335 = 12), and by a 
sufficient deduction for products which were consumed by the pro- 
ducers, and which did not go into exchange in any way, the account 
stands of domestic trade as ten to one in market price. 

But be it remembered, by no means the same in economic value, 
this market price in first hands, taken for comparison of the 
respective values of foreign and domestic products in our exchanges, 
leaves out of consideration, or as proportionably equal, the transpor- 
tation of both,* and the occupation of merchants and profits of 

"•■■■The exports of the United States to manufacturing countries in the fiscal year 
1868-9, gold and silver excepted, were of the value of $250,000,000. At $125 per 
ton, this would give two millions of tons, but not the half of this quantity ever 
touched a railroad or canal on the way to the sea ports. The return merchandise 
did not reach the amount of seven hundred thousand tons, and of this amount not 
more than four or five hundred thousand tons came from the looms, workshops, 
and iron mills of Europe — thus one and a half millions of tons weight of transpor- 
tation upon our canals and railroads is enough to allow for the year's foreign 
trade. But their total traffic amounted to sixty Sve million tons, and of this the 
foreign was certainly not more than two per cent. 
12 



170 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

trade, all of which are manifestly unjust to the trade in domestic com- 
modities, for in the number of removals and of sales, and in the 
amount of employment afforded by the primitive forms of things, 
before they reach their ultimate marketable state, or are ready for 
consumption, there is a vast difference. All these changes and ex- 
changes, with all their accompanying profits, have passed upon the 
foreign goods before they enter our market, and they here go 
through none of the stages of conversion for use prior to the point 
at which they become the sole subject of the trader in finished 
commodities. 

Recollecting this difference against the economic value of foreign 
imports generally, as they appear in the markets of the United 
States, let us approximately ascertain their status in this respect. 

An examination of the imports of 1860 shows that fifty-seven 
and one-half per cent of their value was in manufactured goods, 
ready for distribution to consumers, and only forty-two and one-half 
per cent in commodities of the kinds which are not native to our 
own climate, such as spices, dye-stuffs, tropical fruits, coffee, tea, 
tropical woods, medicines, gums, grasses, and wool coarser than we 
grow at home. These were either materials for further conversion, 
or supplementary to our own natural suppjies, and thus indispens- 
able and legitimate subjects of international trade. 

Our foreign import trade, therefore, which was clearly legitimate 
and every way unexceptionable, amounted in value to only one 
hundred and forty-two millions, exclusive of specie, which was as one 
to twenty-three and one-half of the value of our domestic products 
exchanged (8,350 m. ~- 142 J = 23 o). This latter amount is all 
that we can logically set to the credit of our foreign import trade, 
considered in its economic value to us. These goods came to us 
from countries differing in climate, soil, and industrial products 
from our own. They came not manufactured further than their 
preservation and transportation required. They supplemented our 
resources and ministered to our industries. 

But the British and French dominions in Europe, with Ger- 
many, Holland, Belgium, Hamburg, and Bremen, sent us goods ori 
which the last touches of converting skill had already been ap- 

Thrce hundred thousand immigrants were worth more to the transportation lines. 
So much more vahiahlc to the internal improvement interests of the country are 
live men, than foreign commodities. 



COMMERCE. 171 

plied. They were ready, not for reproduction, but finished for 
consumption, and entered into our account, not as stock, but as 
expenses, to the amount of $193, 000^000. They consisted of such 
articles as these : acids, bleaching powders, clocks and watches, 
clothing', coal, dolls and toys, dressed furs, hats and bonnets, iron, 
steel, laces and embroideries, lead, gloves, tanned and dressed 
skins, sole and upper leather, linseed, essential oils, paints, paper, 
printed books, salt, silk piece-goods and hosiery, soda, brandy, 
spirits, wines, chinaware, and manufactures of cotton, wool, worsted, 
flax, glass, gold, silver, hemp, iron and steel, lead, leather, paper, 
wood, and zinc. In this list there are no articles which were not 
of the value of a quarter of a million of dollars. The omitted 
articles of less annual value are like those that are given — all alike 
of that character which were luxuries or fancy goods, or such as, 
while actually of prime necessity, were yet of a kind which home 
labor and native materials would have afforded us, and which, as 
imports, could have been dispensed with ; and they were liable to 
the further and chief objection that, in the forms imported, they 
displaced an equivalent value of our labor and capital, and actually 
to such extent enforced an idleness of industry and enterprise 
injurious far beyond the cost or the cash disbursed in their 
purchase. 

People talk of balances in international trade, which they find 
in the footings of import and export values ; and they express the 
difference in dollars, or francs, or pounds sterling. This is a sheer 
niisunderstanding of the subject. There is and can be no such 
balances in money values between the exports and imports of a 
nation's trade, further than the temporary differences in the trading 
merchants' accounts, which is nothing to the purpose for which it 
is usually cited. But there is a balance of trade not seen in im- 
porting merchants accounts current, no matter how they stand with 
their foreign correspondents — a balance of vast importance to the 
parties respectively — a balance which nothing in book credits or 
debits can settle — a balance that tells long after the book accounts 
are all evenly closed. It is a balance in the h'md of trade, the kind 
of exchanges, which is not in its nature measurable by money 
values. A trade which inflicts a difference in the productive 
power of a people — which takes from them their self-supporting 
labor, and aggravates the mischief of industrial dependency by all 



172 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

the moral and social evil of feebleness, ignorance, and paralysis in 
the industrial interests of the community — this is a balance to be 
deeply considered and vigilantly avoided. 

There is a kind of labor that requires and employs but little 
skill; which employs and educates none but the lowest physical 
powers of the laborer, and repays nothing beyond the means of a 
mere animal subsistence — a labor of slaves, and sure to enslave 
whoever is doomed to it. There are other styles and kinds of labor 
whose products are the necessities and enjoyments of the proper 
human life, which, in their several grades, rising to the highest 
known in the most advanced societies, employ and educate the 
better and best and noblest of the human faculties, and repay, in 
their rewards, a duly-proportioned wealth to those who command 
and secure them. 

There is evidently in the progress^ of thinsis — in the order of 
Providence, working for the deliverance of men from the bondage 
of animalism, and from its limitations in resources and enjoy- 
ments — a constant endeavor to substitute the insensate forces of 
nature for the drudgery of human beings, and to remit them by 
the route, and through the regenerating power of education, from 
one degree of skilled industry to another and a higher, until 
emancipation shall be complete — till toil shall no longer fail of its 
best ends, or absorb any more of the life than is consistent with, 
and promotive of, the highest style of life of which man is capable 
on earth. 

Money values are not the guides or governors in //tw policy of 
industry, and the loss or gain of trade measured by the footings of 
mercantile accounts, decides nothing of any moment in the ques- 
tion of welfare which tests the real loss |»r gain in all labor and 
trade. 

The world cannot afford more than an ox's wages for an ox's 
work, or more than a slave's subsistence for his toil, which has no 
higher aim for him than his mere subsistence ; but the world can 
afford to pay for, and finds its highest interest in employing and re- 
warding, the nobler ingredients in the work of production, which 
the mind and morals of the laborer offer in the market. 

All this difference lies between skilled and unskilled industr3^ 
And in all the difference between the highest and lowest styles of 
men, and between every degree in the long scale that divides them, 



i 



COMMERCE. 173 

there is a choice that concerns all forms and degrees of prosperity 
to an individual and to a people. 

An international trade that favors the development of a nation 
in power, rank, and knowledge, takes for itself the character of a 
natural exchange, and brings along with it all the blessings that 
philosophers demonstrate, statesmen strive for, and orators and 
poets glorify, in what they call commerce. 

But foreign trade has another side or aspect, and that is the one 
chiefly insisted upon by the cosmopolitans of Political Economy : 
it opens markets for domestic production, widens and enlarges it, 
they say, and besides, in effect, makes a universal fair of exchanges 
for all varieties of commodities; barters surpluses in supply of 
deficiencies ; levels the hills and lifts the valleys of industrial facili- 
ties; interchanges the superiorities of all parties, and gives each 
the advantage of his own, and participation in that of every other; 
serving the aggregate man of all nations as the hand helps the foot, 
and the eye supplements the ear, in the individual organism. 

Very well : so far as international trade does this, and does no 
mischief besides, it is just the legitimate commerce which reason 
and policy commend and necessity itself commands. But is it not 
plain that all these beneficent reciprocities absolutely imply at once 
needful and helpful differences between the parties engaged in such 
commerce ? The very terms of the proposition confine its claims to 
exchanges of differences. Reduced to its directest logical form, 
trade between distant regions means supplementary supplies, not 
competitive traffic. It means the harmony of varieties, not the 
domination of advantages. It means, if not equal, at least, common 
benefits, in which each party finds his own interests promoted, with 
no kind of loss or damage incurred. 

Such trade is conditioned, not unconditional. It must be held in 
keeping with its proper object. The broadest and most unvarying 
condition is the necessity of importing whatever cannot be produced 
on the spot ; in other words, with respect to natural products the 
temperate zones must bring the exclusive products of the torrid and 
frigid zones from the climates and soils which yield them, if they 
would have them. We must get our finer furs from the north and 
our spices from the south ; therefore, international trade, in the first 
place must be across climates, as to the natural products of the 
earth. Under this limitation, and to this extent, trade is supple- 



174 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

mentary, indispensable, unchangeable, and always free from intrusive 
competition. 

Here there is no dispute about its propriety, or its benefits. 

But there are artificial products of labor and skill, which are not 
marked by this distinction of character, under natural law. And 
here lies the debatable ground, in which the theorists who set no 
limit to trade, under their system of cosmopolitanism, difi"er world- 
wide from those who hold the very different doctrine that Political 
Economy is a theory of productive power, and that its dogmas are 
not universal and unconditional, but subject to conditions and 
necessary adaptations to the exigencies of nations; or, in other words, 
that, a true practical economy is national as opposed to universal. 
These latter of course hold, or, consistently, should hold that Political 
Economy is not properly a science, but a remedial and directory 
system of policy, or expediency, variable with the varieties of the 
cases and conditions to which it applies. 

That it is not a science, as chemistry, music, physics, or astronomy, 
are sciences, is obvious enough, when we call upon its professors for 
■ first principles that would command universal assent — when we 
consult them for details of doctrine ; when we try their dogmas by 
history, or by prophesy, or, when we ask them for a demonstrated 
doctrine of civil government in respect to their department of 
inquiry; for a system of currency; of taxation; of education ; for a 
law distributing the products of industry between capital, skill, and 
labor ; for a philosophy of public benevolences, or, for any principles 
in any way or degree regulative of industrial relations, or of rent, 
interest, profits, pauperism, internal improvements, distribution of 
productive functions, regulation of commodity exchanges, or for 
any practical workings of the world's necessary business. 

Would anything surprise or disgust the adepts of this so-called 
science more than to ask them for a formula for the distribution of 
the products of industry between the capitalist who supplies the 
money, the skilled artisan who invents or directs the machinery, 
and the drudge who supplies the muscular power of their joint 
enterprise ? His system of words and disputes leaves all such mat- 
ters to settle themselves. The favorite avoidance of such a test is 
to parade the impracticableness of his principles, as a first principle 
of his science! He tells you that the law of competition (as if 
competition were not in itself the veriest lawlessness") will take 



COMMERCE. 175 

care of tlie rewards of capital, skill and labor — that, in effect, 
strife, to the exhaustion of the strivers, is the way to harmony and 
happiness, or that chaos, without the creative word of control, 
must ferment itself into orderly form. 

Thomas Jefferson said that a pure and simple democracy is the 
devil's own government. To this pure democracy in government, 
without constitutional law, without order, rank, or distribution and 
limitation of functions, pure and free competition, in industry and 
trade, exactly corresponds ; and, accordingly, the last best authority 
among the French economists of the trader's school, declares that, 
" if we consider the great object of all labor, the universal good, 
in a word, consumption, we cannot fail to find that Competition is 
to the moral world what the law of equilibrium is to the material 
one." — Frederich Bastiat, Sophisms of Protection, chap. iv. 

Setting aside, then, those natural and necessary exchanges which 
the laws of soil and sunshine compel, let us examine the principles 
and policy which should rule in the trade which has artificial 
objects for its subjects. These, under certain modifications, may be 
produced anywhere and everywhere; and the practical question 
arises as to them, under what circumstances should their production 
be limited to any one region in preference to another, and where, 
when, and why should the peculiar advantage of their manufacture 
be neglected by one people and enjoyed by another ? 

The best general answer to these questions is, that such division 
should obtain just where it must, and only when it must, and so 
long as it must, of necessity, be so ; which brings us to the still 
broader declaration that foreign trade is rightfully a matter of 
compulsion, and never of absolutely free choice. 

This is the law of interchange under climatic necessities. Why 
not also the law under circumstances which equally allow and 
enforce it? Rightly speaking, there is no such thing as free 
foreign trade, except as lawlessness gets the name of freedom, or as 
men are free to violate law. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

TRADE BETWEEN NATIONS IN DIVERSE GEOGRAPHIC AND 
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS. 

Systems merely remedial must vary with all changes of their subjects. — Political 
Economy limited to national interests. — A logic-built system suited only to 
conditions in which no system at all is needed. — The let-alone theory in place 
there. — Where there is anything at risk, or any choice of policy, self-defense 
and self-direction are demanded. — "Free Trade" allowed while it favors growth, 
but forbidden when it restricts home industry. — Exchange values may rule 
consumption, but may not ruin productive industry. — Prosperity, not prices, 
rightfully governs policy. — Conditions which require foreign trade. — A warring 
trade requires a philosophy of conquest. — The British system in history. — Our 
exports in I8G0 — kinds — one-eighth of manufactures, seven-eighths raw com- 
modities. — Two classes of American agriculturists broadly distinguished. — Our 
farmers export but two per cent of their products — our planters, seventy-five 
per cent of theirs. — Cotton looks to foreign trade, and not to the interest of the 
laborers or of any other national industry. — Cotton has no patriotism — 
always a rebel. — Husbandry loyal to all other industries. — An additional half 
million of yjeople at home would consume all our foreign exports. — These 
exports always of the coarsest and least profitable kinds of our products. — 
Superiority of the home market. — Consuming cost of transportation. — The cry 
for immigrants means the want of a near and constant market. — Rivalry in 
our foreign market for breadstuifs. — British islands our only European market 
for breadstuffs and provisions. — Great and rapid changes in the European 
demand. — Our share in England's supplies. — Ruinous fluctuations in prices. — 
Home consumption of wheat. — England takes one peck jjer head ; we consume 

~ five bushels. — Aggregate of exports to all Europe. — Exports of tobacco. — Only 
thirty-six per cent of our farmers' exports go to Europe; sixty-four per cent 

"" to non-manufacturing countries. — Importance of the whither and the tohat we 
export. — The natural drift plainly indicated. — Uncertainty, insignificance, and 
unprofitableness of the market commended to us by the trader theory. — The 
larger quantities are always at the lower prices. — Reflex efl'ect of foreign upon 
home prices. — General Jackson on diversification of American industries and 

~ on foreign markets for our products. — General Grant's concurrence after a 
lapse of forty years. — Extended domestic manufactures would dispense with 
the worthless foreign demand. 

TAiviN(i the ground that, a system of economy for the direction 
of a nation's business cannot be uniform or universal in its provi- 
176 



THE farmers' question. 177 

sions — that, it is only remedial and directory in its nature, like 
medicine and civil government, or anything else that has disorder 
to deal with, and changefulness in the character of its subjects and 
objects — that, it must be guided by expediency — that, its most gen- 
eral principles must be accommodated to exigences, and that, there- 
fore, it must necessarily accept the presently practicable, as it stag- 
gers on through expediencies toward the far-off absolute; and, that, 
its very best and wisest rules wear out in the work which they direct; 
we, of course, expect that in every difference of conditions among 
different peoples, and, at every step of progress in the onward march 
of the same people, a different measure and movement must be taken; 
changing with all changes of economic and social conditions, and 
constant only in the effort of adaptation. 

Surely, it is not too much to say that, a system of national econ- 
omy'- is properly concerned with its own concerns; and that it must 
take care of itself, if for no other reason, because no other nation 
will or can. Accordingly, there can be no universal system for the 
government of the economic concerns of all the vast varieties of 
nations. 

There are now existing in the world tribes of men in the savage 
state; others in the pastoral; others purely agricultural; others 
mixed agricultural and manufacturing; and others who are agricul- 
tural, manufacturing, and commercial; and all these are yet further 
varied by their respective degrees of advancement in each of these 
classes. Moreover, some of them occupy the frigid, some the tor- 
rid, and some the temperate zones; with their capabilities and their 
destinies, either inflexibly fixed, or greatly influenced, by climatic 
laws. Nor are national differences of character to be overlooked. 
They are not all equally capable of everything, nor of the same 
things. The races of men cannot be treated as homogeneous and 
equal in all things with which economic systems are concerned. 
Nay, the very same people, if favorably situated, in a temperate 
climate, with a sufiicient extent of country, and variety of industrial 
agencies and resources, must, in the progress of growth, pass through 
all the stages, from the simplest agriculture up to the most perfect 
and complete diversification of productive industry and internationa. 
trade. 

Now, no code of doctrinal or practical economy can be true for 
all differences of condition in which communities of men are actually 



178 QUESTIONS or THE DAY. 

found; and no system will apply to the same people in circumstances 
materially clianged. 

Within the Arctic circle and between the Tropics, there is such 
constancy of conditions imposed by climate and soil ; such fixed and 
narrow limits of industrial enterprise, and, withal, their inhabitants 
are so far removed from the class of progressive nations — they have so 
little possibility of growth and its incident changes in themselves 
under the present rule of the world's affairs — that tJiei/ can have a 
logical law of industrial life — a permanent political economy, simply, 
because they need no theoretical system at all. A people that cannot 
diversify their industry, or increase its effectiveness, depend upon, 
and are confined to, a natural monopoly of their special products ; 
and that condition of things takes the government of their affairs 
out of their hands. They are helpless ; and the system of political 
economy which prescribes nothing but competition, and denies and 
refuses all helpfulness, is exactly the doctrine for them. Their fate 
and fortunes are at the disposal of the governing nations around 
them; their dependence upon foreign trade and foreign influence is 
absolute, for all that is possible above the savage for them. This, 
by the way, is the sum and substance of the let-alone philosophy. 
But nations occupying the temperate regions, well provided for pro- 
gress, and with a future before them, have their fate and fortunes 
to make or mar by their own management. They are in necessary 
rivalry with the whole historic belt of the earth's surface. They 
are exposed to military conquest, to political domination, and to in- 
dustrial vassalage to their competitors, of equal powers and similar 
ambitions and aspirations as their own ; and it is their right, as it is 
their duty, sanctioned by every principle of natural morality and 
international law, to regulate their domestic concerns, and manage 
them in their own way, for their own benefit. 

An agricultural people, at a very early stage, will profit greatly by 
unrestricted trade with a manufacturing people. B.ut this rule holds 
not a moment longer, nor a step farther, than such trade ministers 
best to their own growth in all things that make the well-being of 
a people; which may be stated, to our purpose, thus: Commerce 
with superiors is a benefit, even a necessity, up to that point where 
it begins to repress advancement of the inferiors, and then it must 
be restricted or ended. 
_^ Legitimate trade is reciprocity, not dependence and domination. 



V-'^'> — '/ 



THE farmers' question, f 179 

la nature and reason it is only supplementary to domestic produc- 
tion. Its broad higliway is nortk and south, across climates, not 
along them east and weS^t. For the rest — the accidental, the tempo- 
rary, and circumstantially unavoidable — it is the mutual supply of 
the things in which the respective parties are necessarily deficient, 
or of which they are at the time incapable. So long only as they 
are incapable, any people may properly and profitably exchange 
their coarser labor in the form of raw materials and provisions with 
foreign manufacturers, or, until their own labor and capital can pro- 
duce them; that is, exchange values may rule a nation's policy of 
trade while such trade promotes productive power and general pros- 
perity. When trade begins to cripple production in kinds, qualities, 
or value, it must be subordinated. All of which means that man, 
not prices, is the proper object and ruling consideration in commerce. 
Being compelled to dispose of theoretical dogmas which confront us 
with an authority that is held to be respectable, and is known to be 
influential, we return from an enforced digression to examine that 
aspect of foreign trade which lays its claim to the advantages which 
it affords to domestic industry by giving it an extension of its mar- 
kets. There can be no question of its claims in this respect in a 
country like England — a country which depends in an important 
degree for its food upon others having more abundant and cheaper 
agricultural products. Such trade is a necessity of their industrial 
system. An island that may be covered with a thimble on any good- 
sized map of the world, determined to make itself mistress of the 
seas, supreme in the maritime carrying trade, and at the same time 
" the workshop of the world," must have a philosophy to fit its am- 
bition ; and needs to have its system accepted by its tributaries. It 
needs a foreign system of cheap labor to sustain its own of higher 
rewards ; and it needs to have a supporting and conforming policy 
to keep up the required drainage of the pauperism which results 
from its struggle to underwork its customer nations. To these ends 
its civil government has, for two centuries, bent all its energies; and 
now, for about a hundred years, it has been indoctrinating the out- 
side world of barbarians with a philosophy exactly corresponding to 
its own governing policy. Favorably situated for merchandising, it 
pushes trade one while by force of arms, at another by colonization, 
and always, by the rivalries of production, pressed to their utmost 
possibilities, regardless of consequences at home and abroad; and 



^ 



180 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

along witli these forms of force, carries on aa effective system of 
proselytism which intends submission of opinion to their policy of 
industrial domination — an instance of political economy being in 
fact national, in pui'pose and service, and not a whit the less so for 
its disguise of universality. But how does this British system suit 
its industrial tributaries ? How has it suited, in time past, its col- 
onies in America — how has it suited Portugal, Turkey, Ireland, 
and the East Indies? 

We cannot and need not enter into this history. Let us see how 
it stands in relation to the United States in existing circumstances. 
We take the fiscal year 18G0 (ending June 30th), as in our previous 
data, for the reasons, that it was the year of our greatest foreign 
trade up to that date — exceeding the average of the previous five 
years by twenty per cent ; the prices were fair ; the valuations were 
at the standard" of gold; and, for the additional reason that, it was 
the year to which the census returns closely apply, embracing, as 
they did, the latter half of 18G9 and the first half of 1860. 

In that year our domestic exports, exclusive of the precious met- 
als, amounted to three hundred and sixteen millions of dollars, at 
custom house valuation. 

These exports consisted of agricultural products, animal and veg- 
etable, no further altered from their primitive forms than is neces- 
sary for their preservation and transportation beyond seas, to the 
amount of fifty millions; (of these §1:5,250,000 in breadstuffs and 
provisions); the products of the sea and the forests in like condi- 
tion, to the value of eighteen millions; of raw cotton, one hundred 
and ninety-two millions ; raw tobacco, sixteen millions — an aggre- 
gate of two hundred and seventy-six millions; and of manufactures 
of all kinds, a fraction less than forty millions; which figures give 
us twelve and one-half per cent, or one-eighth, of the value of our 
total domestic exports in manufactures, and seven-eighths in such 
goods as were parted with, as nearly as possible, in their primitive 
forms. Of these manufactui'cs, it is to be noted, moreover, that 
there were less than six millions in all forms of iron and steel; just 
two millions of copper, brass and lead ; and of cotton fabrics, less 
than eleven millions; of leather, and of hemp manufactures, less 
than two millions; of tallow candles, soap, and spirits from grain, 
and of lard and linseed oil, a million and a.half; of woolens nothing 
worth a place among tho enumerated articles, and of bread and bis- 



THE farmers' question. 181 

euit, half a million ; and, nothing else that concerns the farming 
interests of the country except three and a third millions worth of 
segars and snuff — eighteen millions, all told, of manufactures from 
materials furnished by our farmers and planters; or, the foreign 
trade in these articles made an additional market at home for one- 
half this value in raw materials. 

Our planters and farmers found markets abroad that jrear for raw 
cotton, rice, and raw toba,cco, and for breadstuffs and provisions to 
the value of two hundred and fifty-eight millions. 

The products of farming and planting that year amounted in 
value to full twenty-five hundred millions. They had a foreign mar- 
ket for ten and five-eighths per cent of their products in money 
value. 

But there are distinct interests involved in the form of the state- 
ment : the agriculturists, other than those who cultivated cotton, as 
Miiners dig for gold, for the products which exhaust the sources of 
supply, and who had no policy beyond the current profit of their 
pursuit, must be distinguished from those whose business links them 
into the closest connection with the industries around them — who 
must secure a steady and sufficient market against competition every- 
where confronting them, and must, at the same time, husband and 
improve the source of their supplies as gold-diggers cannot do, and 
cotton-planters will not. Our farmers proper had a product worth 
twenty-three hundred millions of dollars, of which the foreign mar- 
ket took from them but fifty-nine millions worth, or two and one-half 
per cent, or one in forty dollars worth. 

The cotton growers' crop amounted to 5,198,077 bales, of which 
foreign nations purchased 3,812,345, or nearly seventy-five per 
cent. They found a home market for $61,000,000, and a foreign 
market for $192,000,000 worth. Here we have a vast difference 
in the respective interests of the planter and farmer in our foreign 
trade — showing, again, the necessity of attending to the specialties 
of the many and dissimilar subjects of commercial exchanges. 
These differences are so great and so important that we can but 
suggest and submit them for reflection. Cotton, for instance, held 
foreign relations threefold stronger than its interests at home. Its 
rule favored neither the laborers employed by it, nor the prosperity 
of any other national industry. It produced upon the planter none 
of the distinguishing influences which are expressed in the good 



182 QUESTIONS OP THE DAY. 

old name of husbandman, as applied to the tiller of the soil who 
depends upon it for exhaustless support. It made the cultivator 

^ nomadic by its exhaustiveness. It compelled him to be an annexa- 
tionist of new territory. Cotton had no patriotism. It was cosmo- 
politan in all its instincts and interests, for it was a monopolist. It 
looked to its markets, and knew nothing but money values. It had 
no impulses that could make its system one that can be governed 
by the leading idea of productive power. It was exhaustive of its 
soil, of its labor, and, eventually, of itself. It had, as a special and 
exclusive industry, all the qualities and characters that made it 
look to foreign trade for its sales, and for all its purchasers. It was 
the very ideal of a system of exports and imports, and, therefore, 
so far was it from embracing the harmonies of all industrial inter- 
ests that it warred upon them all. It was, from the day it achieved 
its supremacy in commerce and crowned itself king, in a constant 
commercial rebellion against the republicanism of diversified labor. 
Such, indeed, is the character of every isolated pursuit; such is 
the history of all mining countries that ever obtained the mastery 
of the world's trade. They would not consider the interests of any 
industry unless it could be made a tributary. Men are nothing to 
them but instruments of production, and, the Providence, which 
we call the world's policy of business, naturally destroys them. 

It is not so with husbandry. In its simplest forms it cannot 
even maintain its own rights and liberties ; and it never can grow 
y^ into strength and maturity but in harmony and interdependence 
with all the other forms of diversified production. It prospers in 
a fair copartnership of interests, and has no tendencies against 
fairly distributed and mutually beneficial industries. 

But, let us return to the value of foreign trade as affording a 
market to the people of the United States. The foreign consump- 
tion of our agricultural products, as we have seen, at the highest 
figure which they ever reached before the time of our civil war, 
amounted to about two per cent of the annual product. Thoy 
were taken by the foreign consumers to the value of barely such 
an amount as would have been consumed by an additional number 
of people at home equal to one forty-eighth of our population, or 
about G4G,000 people. The exports so taken were necessarily of 
the cheapest, coarsest, and least profitable of the products of our 
soil. They were such as grow upon land worth from five to thirty 



THE TARMERS' QUESTION, 183 

dollars per acre, and whict cannot be produced in surplus abund- 
ance on land worth more. They are bulky, and are of kinds that, 
after bearing all the cost of transportation, are sure to meet the 
rival products of every semi-barbarous country in the great 
markets of the world which they seek. The other products of 
land which will not bear distant carriage, in a home market bring 
prices which makes all the difference in the value of lands near a 
great city as contrasted with that of the prairies of the remote 
West. 

One more carpenter, blacksmith, shoemaker, or other artisan, in 
every township in the United States, would give a larger, surer, 
better market to its farmers than all the foreign world ever did, or 
ever can afford them. Distance at home of two or three hundred 
miles, eats up half the value of their produce though they have the 
entire market of the country to themselves. It costs the price of 
one bushel of wheat, when it is at seventy-five cents per bushel, to 
send another from central Illinois to Liverpool; and sometimes, corn 
in the ear is used in the more distant localities for fuel, because it 
will pay nothing, beyond the cost of carriage, in the eastern cities 
of the Union. Shall a foreign market be sought for, in the face of 
all its uncertainties and expensiveness, to the neglect of a system 
which will provide a home consumption steady, and certainly remu- 
nerative ? 

The effort to promote immigration from Europe, now stirring the 
people of every region at the shortest distances from our sea-board 
cities, is testimony to the truth and force of the views here pre- 
sented. The cry is for labor, indeed, but the no less important want 
is, for home consumers. A working man is all the more welcome if 
he brings with him a family of four or five persons to feed and 
clothe. 

In the President's message of December 6, 1869, we find, involved 
in a few sentences of the plainest practical recommendation to 
Congress upon the subject of the nation's industrial interests, a 
complete exposition of, and directory for, the conduct of our foreign 
trade. He says " the extension of railroads in Europe and the East 
is bringing into competition with our agricultural products like pro- 
ducts of other countries.'^ ' 

Let us look for a moment at the character and value of the 
European market for our breadstuffs in a past pei'iod, long enough 



184 QUESTIONS OP THE DAY. 

to take in its usual fltictuations. Inasmuch as we have no sale for our 
breadstuffs in Kurope except in the British Islands — all the other 
European countries needing foreign supplies, receiving them from 
near neighbors, Russia, Prussia, France, and the Turkish dominions 
— we have the data for our purpose unusually compact and accurate 
in matters of this kind : we have the British official reports, and 
from them we give the facts. We quote the British " Statistical 
Abstract" of the year ISGG, page forty-two, which gives the total 
imports into the United Kingdom for fifteen years — from 1851 to 
1865, inclusive; a period that covers the ordinary range of good and 
bad British harvests, commercial troubles, and includes, besides, the 
two years' Crimean War ( March 1854 to April 185G). The quan- 
tities are given in hundred weights, gross ; the flour being reduced 
to its equivalent in wheat, and thus included in the aggregates. 
We shall use the more fivmiliar measure expressed in bushels, in 
rendering the statement. 

In the first place, we see the unsteadiness of demand in the wide 
range of the total imports from all countries; twenty-sis millions of 
bushels being the amount in the lowest year and ninety-three mil- 
lions in the highest. In only four of these fifteen years did the 
import rise above fifty-six millions; the average of the other eleven 
years, selected for their nearer agreement, being forty-one millions ; 
and even these fluctuated from twenty-six to forty-five and one-half 
millions. 

Not only the great range of fluctuation in the demand, which in 
one of these years was three and a half times greater than in the lowest 
of seven years before, but the suddenness of the changes are specially 
noteworthy: in a single year varying from twenty-three millions to 
forty-two millions ; in another year, from ninety-three to fifty-seven 
and, to add, if anything can add, to the uncertainties of such a 
market, by far the lowest average imports of any two consecutive 
years in this period, were those of the Crimean War. These points 
exhibit the fearful unreliableness of a market for a product that 
must be sown and prepared for it, a year before it must meet its fate. 

But our share of the risk runs even tenfold wilder than that of 
the general demand. In 1855 the United Kingdom took from us 
80^,000, in 1860, 17,221,546, and in 1865, 2,029,347 bushels of 
wheat and its equivalent in flour ; and in respect to our distributive 
share of the supply; in 1851 we furnished seventeen per cent of the 



THE farmers' question. , 185- 

total import; in 1860, twenty-nine per cent, and in 1865, five and 
three-quarters per cent. While, as if to expose still more surprisingly 
the capriciousness of this trade, in 1864, the worst year of our 
Rebellion, for such a calculation, we sent them thirty-five per cent 
of their total foreign receipts. 

The only other grain to be considered is our maize or Indian corn. 
The British import account stands thus: in 1865, total imports, 
seven millions cwts. — of this, from the Turkish dominions, over 
three millions; from the United States, one and three-quarter mil- 
lions. In 1864, from Turkish dominions, three and two-third mil- 
lions; from the United States, 294,263. In 1859, 14,417 cwts. 
from United States, and from European countries, 5,618,727. In 
1861 we sent them 7,385,718 cwts., or 512 times more than in 
1859, and in 1864 they took from us twenty-five times less than in 
1861, and twenty times more than in 1859 ! 

Now look at the variance of prices for our breadstuffs in London : 
our wheat brought 83s. dd. per quarter of eight imperial (equal to 
something over eight and one-quarter of our bushels) in 1855 ; 
in 1864, 40s. 5d. per quarter, and in the intermediate years various 
rates between these prices; at the former price taking 3,609,583 
bushels, at the latter 18,811,204, being about $2.44 per American 
bushel at the highest, and $1.18 at the lower rate, put down in 
Liverpool or London; cost of freight, commissions, insurance and 
profits of all intermediate dealers included. The average of this 
wide range of prices for our wheat was $1.45 per American bushel 
in the English markets. The average quantity per annum, eighteen 
and one-eighth millions of bushels, and the variance of quantity 
was, in the lowest year, 803,607 bushels, and in the highest, 
9,100,707 — the former in 1859, the latter in 1862, which latter 
extraordinary quantity brought but $1.47 per bushel, as against the 
average of British wheat in the same year, $1.63. 

Our own population consumes five bushels of wheat per head 
per annum, 31,000,000 of persons, our number in 1860, giving a 
market for 155,000,000 bushels. 

The British official reports of imports from the United States for 
the four years 1865-8 show the effects of the railroad system in 
Europe in lessening our market there for wheat and flour in most 
remarkable figures. In the four years 1861-4 they imported from 
us 59,322,100 cwt. — forty-four and one-third per cent of their total 
13 



186 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

import; from all other countries, 74,555,294. But in the four 
years 18G5-8 they took from us but 16^522,509 cwt. — only twelve 
and three-quarters per cent, and from other countries 118,297,- 
549 cwt., which was eighty-seven and one-quarter per cent of the 
total. Here, then, we have our average cut down from 18,500,000 
bushels per annum in the eight years preceding 1865. to 7,727,837 
in the four years since ; or, the population of the British islands 
are now consuming one peck of our wheat per head per annum. 

The home consumption of five bushels per head, with a protec- 
tion of twenty cents per bushel against the wheat of Canada, and 
an immigration now able to consume our whole surplus, is surely 
a market better worth striving for, and securing by a policy of 
domestic industry, which is now increasing this home market at an 
unprecedented rate. 

We have made our arithmetical demonstration of the insecurity 
and insignificance of our only European market for breadstuff's on 
wheat and fiour alone. In respect to provisions of all other kinds, 
which are among the transportable products of agriculture, the 
same story may be told. 

To illustrate and prove this we need only refer to our own report 
of Commerce and Navigation for the fiscal year 1859-60 — the 
greatly largest year of our foreign trade previous to the commence- 
ment of our civil war. In that year we exported to British Europe, 
of farm products proper, to the value of only 818,100,762, and 
imported from them articles identical with, or corresponding to 
these exports of the value of 83,902,535, leaving, when deducted, 
a market for no more than 814,198,227. The commodities here 
embraced were breadstuff's and provisions of all kinds, hides, tallow, 
leather, oils, lard, wool, ashes, oil-cake, wax, seeds, hops, oats, 
spirits, and other raw materials. If we add lumber in all forms 
(8709, 312j we have in round numbers agricultural exports for the 
year amounting to 815,000,000. 

France, which is herself a large exporter of agricultural pro- 
ducts, of course did still less. The aggregate value of all similar 
articles which she took from us that year amounted to barely 
^1,568,295, and to all Europe beside less than another million and 
a half — all told, about 818,000,000 worth of farm products proper. 

Cotton and tobacco are not included in these amounts, and if 
the latter claims a place on account of the growing culture by our 



THE farmers' question. 187 

farmers, as part of tlieir varied crops, then 816,000,000 covers the 
total export in leaf, and $3,375,000, manufactured. 

To get another view of our foreign markets, and of their value to 
our own agriculture, it is worth while to note that in the fiscal year ^ 
1859-60, our total exports of breadstufis and provisions were $38,- ^ 
858,086, and of these there went to all manufacturing countries in 
Europe — (Great Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, and 
the Free cities) just 618.952,988, or thirty-six per cent of the total; 
the balance being taken by non-manufacturing countries in the East- 
ern hemisphere, and in America. Seventy-seven per cent of our leaf 
tobacco also went to agricultural countries, making together $31,750,- 
000 to those with whom we have no rival industries, while $31,500,000 
went to the peoples whom we designate as manufacturing, because 
our imports from them are such as displace our own products of the 
like kinds. 

Is it not well, as a farmer's question, to analyze our foreign trade /\ 
in exports, that we may the better understand how far and where 
our interests lie in the direction of raising raw materials for foreign 
trade ? Leaving out tobacco and cotton we had in our best year of 
foreign trade a market for agricultural raw materials of all kinds of 
less than twenty millions, among all the nations to which the trade p 
theorists resign us for our supply of the things which employ skilled i 
labor; and if we add tobacco, the sum is but §31,500,000. The 
non-manufacturing countries took from us thirty-two millions worth 
of our manufactures, while the rest of the world took a little less, 
than eight millions worth. Leaving cotton out of the account, the 
non-manufacturing nations took from us $63,750,000 of our total 
exports of commodities, other than gold and silver, and the manu- 
facturing peoples took $53,750,000. Which way lies our trade as 
indicated by our exchanges of farming products with the rest of 
the world ? 

Again : our imports for that year from non-manufacturing coun- 
tries amounted to forty-two and four-tenths per cent, or seven-six- 
teenths of the whole. Legitimate trade thus far asserted itself in 
spite of the unfavorable policy which invited our industrial rivals to 
disturb it. 

The farmingjnterest, — so persistently appealed to for the support 
of a system that assigns to us the function of supplying food and 
raw material for the higher styles of production in other countries, — 



188 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

|Lwe need only point to the fact that the policy never gave them cus- 
tomers abroad for more than twenty millions worth of their special 
products — never gave them a promise reliable for even that much, 
\ or half that much, in time to provide for it — and always, the quan- 
I tity so far influenced the price, that the actual profit is exceedingly 
^ questionable. The trade in this respect has this complexion : in the 
four years, 1854-7, when our wheat averaged two dollars per bushel, 
in London they took 38,764,581 bushels, but when they took in the 
four years, 1861-4, 110,734,715 bushels, the price averaged one 
dollar and forty cents. See the diflPerence : at the higher price, 
9,500,000, and at the lower, 27,500,000 bushels, per annum. 

We cannot settle the profits of this trade, as they fall into the 
hands of the merchant exporters, factors and other middlemen; but 
V we are clear that wherever the farmer gets the foreign market for 
the larger quantity, it is at the cost of the lower price ; and, when- 
ever the higher prices rule in England, he is reduced in his sales to 
about one-third of the quantity, as in the instances last cited. 

But some one will say — it is the surplus of production only that 
is so transported, and at any price, it is so much gain or escape of 
loss. Not so. If $1.40 in London means seventy cents to the 
farmer in the West, the reaction of the London price cuts down that 
of all that is retained or sold in the home market, and the foreign 
sales take off never so much as thirty millions from the annual crop 
which ordinarily rises to at least one hundred and seventy-five mil- 
lions. So, if they get at this rate for the whole crop $122^500,000, and 
the reflected e'fi"ect of the foreign sales cuts down the price of all but 
fifteen cents per bushel, the total exportation is a dead loss; it might 
as well be cast into the sea. or far better, fed to horses and hogs at 
home; for one hundred and seventy-five million bushels at seventy 
cents, is worth no more tban one hundred and forty-five millions 
at eighty-five cents. 

From all which it appears now, as it did in 1824 when General 
Jackson wrote his Coleman letter, where he asks: "What is the 
real situation of the American agriculturist ? Where has the 
American farmer a market for his surplus products ? Except for 
cotton he has neither a home nor a foreign market. Take, [he con- 
tinues,] from agriculture in the United States six hundred thousand 
men, women and children, and you will at once give a home market 
for more breadstufi's than all Europe now furnishes us." 



THE farmers' question. 189 

The condition of the country is so far changed now, that General 
Grant points to the home market as the only reliable one, and indi- 
cates the causes at work which will speedily destroy even the 
insignificant outlet which has heretofore been found in the only 
country in Europe where we ever sold any breadstuffs aod provisions 
at all. Jackson wrote his letter in 1821. Forty-five years have, in a 
good measure, taken away one limb of Jackson's complaint, by 
setting in operation, to a great extent, the remedy he prescribed. 
The home market is tolerably well built up; and it remained only 
for President Grant to warn us that the foreign reliance is rapidly 
getting worse, and to urge the maintenance and extension of the 
system of domestic manufactures which will enable us to dispense 
with it, without any detriment by deprivation. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

TREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 

Political Economy not a science ; opinions of Daniel Webster and Napoleon 
Bonaparte. — J. B. Say's work prohibited by Xapoleon. — The labor interests of 
the continent of Europe defended against Great Britain. — " Industry a property." 
Lord Brougham and Joseph Hume would strangle foreign manufactures in their 
cradle. — British capital the instrument of warfare against foreign competition. 
History of protection and free trade in the experience of the United States. 
Variety and extent of our territory, composition of our population. — British 
restrictions of colonial industry. — Manufactures freed and fostered by the war 
of the Revolution ; their great progress ; Hamilton's Report in 1791 ; they perish 
for want of protection between 1783 and 1789. — Testimony of Dr. AVilliamson, 
John Marshall, Ramsey, Belknap and Madison. — Protection avowed in the first 
tariff act of the first Federal Congress. — Washington on the results of protection. 
— The continental wars, from 1793 to 1815, with our embargo, non-importation 
act, and our own war of 1812 effectually defended our manufactures. — Con- 
gressional report of 1815 proves their prosperity. — Slight advance in the ensuing 
thirty years. — The free trade period, 1816 to 1824:, ending in universal dis- 
tress. — The evils all remedied by protection from 1824 to 1832. — Character of 
these tarifi' acts. — Tariff for protection proved to be most productive of rev- 
enue. — Faults, and resulting mischief of the protection theory at this period. — 
Act of 1832 gave us the first well-principled free list; discharge of the national 
debt; surplus in the treasury; reduction of income attended by reduction of 
customs rates — the free trade theory of that day. — The directly contrary 
doctrine of the free traders in 1846 and 1856. — The same party now again 
returns to the doctrine of 1832, which is once more refuted by the high 
rates of 1861-71 as it was in 1824-32 ; the nullification era, and the sur- 
render of protection. — Capital and labor driven from the Eastern to the 
Western States. — Enormous increase of the sales of the public lands. — Great 
reduction of the customs, bankruptcy of the people and of the Treasury. — In- 
crease of imports and inflation of bank credits and currency. — Inflation of the 
currency due to excess of imports ; never did or could happen under adequate 
protection. — "Periodic" financial and business revulsions due to free trade. — 
Consequences of the Compromise Act bring about another change of commer- 
cial policy, and give us the protective tariff of 1842. — Change from specific to 
ad valorem duties in 1846. — Consequent unsteadiness of its protective provisions. 
Temporary reliefs from the European famine of 1848 : the Crimean War of 1854 ; 
discoveries of gold in 1850 and the excessive production and export of Southern 
staples. — A sufficient success of the protective rates, thus corroborated, once 
more invites the overthrow of the protective policy. — The reduced rates of the act 
190 



PROTECTION AND TREE TRADE. 191 

of 1857 precipitate the issue, and the revulsion and specie suspension of 1857 fol- 
low. — A greater and a worse revulsion prevented by the great Rebellion of 
1S61 — grounds of this opinion.— The Morrill tariff and amendments. — The 
national industry defended and sustained; the expenditures of the war pro- 
vided; the public debt greatly reduced; the threatened collapse of the country 
postponed six years; the Treasury overflowing, and, another pretext -proYided 
for the ruinous policy of free trade. 

The reader of these papers will have noticed, perhaps, with some 
surprise, and it may be with even some less favorable feeling, my 
reiterated denials of the pretensions of "Political Economy" to 
the name and rank of a science. It is just here, in the foreground 
of the great debate, that I join issue with the free trade theorists. 
Let me shelter my audacity under the authority of two statesmen, 
one of whom had large opportunity, and as large capacity, for 
testing its theoretical pretensions, and the other the most pressing 
necessity for judging its doctrines in their practical application. 
The first whom I cite is Daniel , Webster. In a letter to Mr. 
Dutton, dated May 9th, 1830, he says: "Though I like the 
investigation of particular questions, I give up what is called the 
' Science of Political Economy.' There is no such science. There 
are no rules on these subjects so fixed and invariable as that their 
aggregate constitutes a science. I believe that I have recently 
run over twenty volumes, from Adam Smith to Professor Dew, of 
Virginia, and from the whole, if I were to pick out with one hand 
all the mere truisms, and, with the other, all the doubtful proposi- 
tions, little would be left."* 

My other protector is Napoleon Bonaparte. Adam Smith's 
"Wealth of Nations" was fairly afloat in 1784. In 1803 J. B. 
Say published his " Treatise on the Production, Distribution, and 
Consumption of Wealth," in which he methodized the irregular 
mass of curious and original speculations of Smith, and gave to the 
new-born science the form and order which has ever since governed 
the method of cultivating its themes. When Napoleon subjected it 
to his practical style of criticism, he said, " If an empire were made 

* In this sweeping sentence it is to be observed that Adam Smith is expressly 
named, and among the twenty volumes must have been included Malthus, 
Ricardo, J. B. Say, and J. R. McCulloch, for all these were in the libraries then, 
and these authors are still regarded by their followers as the founders and the 
authorities of their school. Our American authors, Carey, List, and Colwell, 
could not have been included in the verdict of the great "expounder," for 
neither of these published his works until after the year 1836. 



192 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

of adamant, political economy would grind it to powder." lie pro- 
hibited its further publication in France for a dozen years. He 
saw that the logic of the work was specious, and he knew that it 
was pernicious ; and, being too busy with the government of a 
nation to enter the lists as a disputant, he interdicted the book. 

Under the circumstances he did exactly right. The short answer 
of a blockade all around the coasts of continental Europe, declared 
by the Berlin and Milan decrees, was the practical solution of the 
questions involved. Then, again, the sword cut the gordian knot, 
and France and Grermany were thereby released from industrial 
dependence upon Great Britain forever. A professor of political 
economy could not have done as much with any quantity of 
foolscap. 

Napoleon had another idea worthy of him. "Formerly," he 
said, "there was only one kind of property, land; another has 
since arisen, industry ; " and he held it as wise and as'necessary to 
defend the one as the other from foreign invasion. He knew that 
f a nation's welfare is not measured by its foreign trade, but by its 
f productive power — that the policy of a huckster is not a directory 
Tor the conduct of national affairs; and he freely sacrificed prices, 
while he fostered the power that produces values. He would not 
stand haggling over the market cost of commodities, but addressed 
his policy to the real issue : how shall a nation increase its power 
to command and consume them ? Such minds as his are prophetic. 
He needed not to wait till 1815, when Lord Brougham, in Parlia- 
ment, said, "England can afford to incur some loss on the export of 
English goods, for the purpose of destroying manufactures in their 
cradle j" or for the avowal made by the renowned Joseph Hume, 
in 1828, that he desired " to see the manufactures of the Conti- 
nent strangled in the cradle ;" nor needed he to wait for the Parlia- 
ment report of its commissioner appointed in 1S54 to inquire into 
the state of the population in the mining districts, in which the fol- 
lowing argument is addressed to the strikers for higher wages : 
"Authentic instances are well known of [English] employers 
having in such times [times of depressed prices] carried on their 
works at a loss amounting to three or four hundred thousand 
pounds in the course of three or four years. If the efforts of those 
who encourage the combination to restrict the amount of labor, and 
to produce strikes, were to be successful for any length of time, 



PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 193 

tlie great accumulations could be no longer made whicli enable a 
few of the most wealthy capitalists to overwhelm all foreign com- 
jpetltion in times of great depression. The large capitals of this 
country are the great instruments of warfare (if the expression 
may be allowed) against the competing capitals of foreign coun- 
tries, and are the most essential instruments now remaining, by 
which our manufacturing supremacy can be maintained." Napoleon 
foresaw all these threats of free foreign trade reduced to practice, 
and fortified the industry of France against them as vigorously as 
he defended the soil itself against the invasion and domination of 
foreign foes, and for the same and even better reasons. 

These preliminaries are intended to apprise the students of our 
subject that we take ground, first, against the logic and the method 
of the theory of commerce relied upon by the free traders, as 
wholly fallacious and inapplicable; and, secondly, against its practi- 
cal consequences, as directly and totally opposed to the requirements 
of our national welfare. 

The caption of this chapter intimates our intention to discuss pro- 
tection and free trade as they interlock and antagonize each other in 
our national policy. A more abstract and more formal treatment 
would not so well comport with our design and our limits. With 
this view we submit a very brief history of the experience of the 
country in its varied experiments of the respective systems. 

Almost within the memory of living men, the United States have 
risen from the complete subjection of colonial dependence, and from 
the condition of separate provinces, united by no political bond, to 
that of a compact, rjch, and independent nation; outranking the 
empires of the old world in territorial extent, and varied capabili- 
ties of production ; equaling the strongest of them in population ; 
composed of representatives of all the progressive races of mankind j 
embracing the soils and climates of the whole habitable globe; 
shaped into a continent convenient for internal commerce, with a 
sea-coast so deeply indented, and a lake and river system dissecting 
the mass so thoroughly, that a domain only one-sixth less than the 
area of the fifty-nine or sixty empires, states and republics, of Europe, 
•and of equal extent with the E.o,man Empire at its largest, is cut, 
for the purposes of internal and external commerce^ into twenty 
islands of the size of Great Britain. Here are all the conditions, 
in ample proportion and suitable combination for the rehearsal of the 



194 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

world's history, aud uothiug lacking to work out a world's destiny; 
and here we have precipitated upon us every social, political and 
economic problem of the past and future of human history, with 
the people of every kindred and clime for the subjects and agents. 

The history of such a country's commerce and industry, so far 
advanced as ours already is, cannot fail to be more instructive than 
that of any other. The development has been so rapid; the suc- 
cessive periods of protection and free-trade have been so frequent 
and sudden; and the results so plainly marked, that the varied ex- 
periences must be conclusively demonstrative of the doctrines and 
policies so well and so thoroughly tried. 

The colonies were held under restraint so absolute that, beyond 
the common domestic industries, and the most ordinary mechanical 
employments, no kind of manufactures were permitted. In 1750, 
a hatter shop in Massachusetts, was declared a nuisance by the 
British Parliament. In the same year an act was passed permitting 
the importation of pig iron from the colonies, because charcoal, then 
exclusively employed in smelting the ore, was well-nigh exhausted 
in England; but forbidding the erection of tilt-hammers, slitting or 
rolling mills, or any establishment for the manufacture of steel. In 
the same year the great Earl of Chatham, alarmed at our enterprise, 
declared that the colonies ought not to be allowed to manufacture so 
much as a hob-nail. This was protection, after the manner of that 
day, for England, and open ports and free-trade in all its bearings, 
for the colonies. 

The British navigation laws were enacted in the same spirit and 
to the same intent — to hold the colonies in commercial and indus- 
trial vassalage to the mother country. Then, we were restrained by 
force of law from diversifying our industry freely ; now we are per- 
suaded to accept the like dependency upon superior ability to monopo- 
lize our market, by leaving the choice of our industries undefended 
against an equally aggressive and an equally potent supremacy. 

A protective period followed. The interruption of commerce 
with Great Britain during the war of the Revolution awakened, per 
force, the manufactures of the States that had the materials and the 
labor power, so that at its close they found themselves considerably 
advanced in those skilled industries which make a nation self-sup- 
plying. From the success attained, Alexander Hamilton, in his 
celebrated Report 'upon Manufactures, in 1791, argues the practica- 



PROTECTION AND TREE TRADE. 195- 

bility and the duty of encouraging our manufactures. He enumer- 
ates, in detail, seventeen grand departments which were then well 
established. They prevailed as well in the Southern as in the Mid- 
dle and Northern States j and he is particular to embrace "a vast 
scene of household manufacturing," which not being yet displaced 
by steam and machinery, as it has been since, he says, supplied, in 
different districts, two-thirds, three-fourths, and even four-fifths of 
all the clothing of the inhabitants. Of textile fabrics he reports, 
that in several kinds, the domestic fiibrication was not only sufficient 
for the families themselves, but for sale, and to such extent in some 
cases that they were exported to foreign countries. 

These household industries were, soon after the peace of Paris, . 
(1783), effectually suppressed, so flir as they had before been pro- 
ductive in excess of the home supply, by an inundation of foreign 
goods; for after the date of the treaty of peace, and previous to the 
organization of the Federal Government — a period of seven years — 
there was no protective power in the old confederation, and no con- 
currence of policy among the several States. In the first Federal 
Congress, a member speaking of this period of free trade, said, " We- 
bought according to the doctrine of modern theorists, where we 
could purchase cheapest, and were soon inundated with foreign 
commodities : English goods were sold at lower rates in our maritime 
cities than at Liverpool or London. Oar manufactures were ruined; 
our merchants, even those who had hoped to enrich themselves by 
importation, became bankrupt, and all these causes united had such 
an influence upon agriculture that a general depreciation of real 
estate followed, and failure became general among the proprietors." 

Dr. Hugh ^Yilliamson, describing the distresses and disorders of 
the year 1786, says, "The scarcity of money is so great, and the 
difficulty of paying debts has been so common, that riots and com- 
binations have been formed in many places, and the operations of 
civil government have been suspended." 

Chief Justice Marshall, in his "Life of Washington," speaking 
of this crisis generally, and particularly of the causes which led to 
Shay's Eebellion, says, "On opening their ports, an immense 
quantity of foreign merchandise was introduced into the country, 
and they were tempted by the sudden cheapness of imported goods, 
and by their own wants, to purchase beyond their capacity for pay- 
ment." The consequences, as soon as they had time to work them- 



196 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

selves out, lie tlius describes : " The bonds of men, whose competency 
to pay their debts was unquestionable, could not be negotiated but 
at a discount of thirty, forty, and fifty per centum; real property was 
scarcely vendible; and sales of any article for ready money could be 
made only at a ruinous loss." Ramsey's History of South Carolina, 
and Belknap's History of New Hampshire, show that the distress 
was as general as intense, and that it displayed itself in "a disposi- 
tion everywhere to resist the laws." 

This state of things, more than any other, impelled the States to 
draw closer the bonds of political union, and to grant the needful 
powers to Congress to establish an effective system of commercial 
regulations for the nation. Mr. Madison, in a letter to Joseph C. 
Cabell, dated September 18th, 1828, fully and conclusively demon- 
strates this point. No one can read this letter without being con- 
vinced that, above all other causes, the sufferings of the country 
from the evils of its unprotected industries literally drove the loosely 
confederated states into a " more perfect union " empowered to pro- 
vide more effectually for the "general welfare." Protection of the 
home industries against foreign rivalry was not only the sentiment, 
but, under pressure of a terrible experience of absolute free trade, had 
become the sensation of the day. In the heartiest sympathy with 
this general feeling, Washington wore a coat of domestic cloth on 
the day of his inauguration, "giving," as a New York journal of 
the day said, " to his successors, and to legislatures of after time, an 
indelible lesson as to the means of promoting national prosperity." 
The preamble to the first tariff act of the first Federal Congress, 
passed on the -Ath of July, 1789, echoes the urgency of the public 
feeling, in answer to petitions poured in from every State, not except- 
ing commercial New York, or planting South Carolina. It reads 
thus : " Whereas it is necessary for the support of the Government, 
for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the encour- 
agement and protection of manufactures^ that duties be laid on 
goods, wares, and merchandise imported," etc. This first protective 
act was followed by another of the 10th of August, 1790, largely 
increasing the duties already imposed. 

The happy results of this policy became immediately apparent — 
instantly, indeed — as soon as the languishing industries felt the 
reviving touch of the nation's fostering hand, because the confi- 
dence of security has the power of credit to anticipate time. As 



1 



PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 197 

early as October, 1791, Washington, writing to La Luzerne, holds 
this language : " In my tour I confirmed by observation the 
accounts which we had all along received of the happy eflfects of the 
G-eneral Grovernment upon our agriculture, commerce, and industry. 
The same effects pervade the Middle and Eastern States, with the 
addition of vast progress in the most useful manufactures." 

The protective rates of the several tariffs passed before the year 
1804 were quite too low to answer the intention by their unaided 
force, but in 1793 the opening war of the continent of Europe, 
which was to last, with slight remissions, until 1815, operated upon 
both our productive and commercial interests in the happiest way. 
The destructive war of England and her allies with the French 
Republic and Empire, the consequent disturbance of all trans- 
atlantic labor, and the suspension of specie payments by the Bank 
of England, which lasted from 1797 for full twenty years, raised 
prices abroad, and thus afforded an ample defence of our domestic 
markets. These again were helped by our embargo of 1807, the 
non-intercourse act of 1809, and finally by our war of 1812; all these 
causes- together afforded such a shelter, and gave such an impulse to 
our infant manufactures, that we not only met the home demand, 
but were able to furnish a surplus for exportation. A Congressional 
report of 1815 puts our cotton and woolen manufactures at more 
than sixty millions per annum, with above one hundred thousand 
workmen employed. Thirty years afterwards Secretary Walker 
estimated the products of these. two branches of manufacture in the 
United States at no more than eighty-nine millions, or less than 
fifty per cent increase. 

England in that thirty years increased the exports of her pro- 
ducts from forty-two millions of pounds sterling to one hundred 
and thirty-five millions, official valuation, or two hundred and 
twenty per cent. 

As in the case of the war of Independence, that of 1812 had 
the effect to extend our manufacturing industry by excluding 
foreign competition, and to increase rapidly and greatly all values, as 
well of raw materials as of manufactured goods, labor, and real 
estate; thus giving a well-distributed prosperity to workmen, to 
land-holders, and to international commerce. 

But after the battle of Waterloo, and the general pacification of 
Europe, England, France, and Grermany went to work; the duties 



198 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

of the tariff of 1816, unsupported by the previous diversion of 
the European embroihiient, were -wholly inadequate. Our pros- 
perity went down under a flood of foreign importations, and from 
1819 to 1824 the country presented a picture of general distress, 
with shadings nearly as deep and dark as the corresponding crisis, 
which followed the war of the Revolution. Seven years of peace 
f at both periods, with the country's labor undefended, inflicted a 
i hundredfold more injury upon the people than any such periods of 
( war for the defence of national rights ever did or could do. The 
' intolerable mischiefs of the free trade policy in the last, as in the 
former instance, brought reflection to the nation. A Democratic 
Congress ordered the republication of Hamilton's Report of 1791 on 
Manufactures, which was now felt to be far better entitled to be 
called "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of 
Nations" than Adam Smith's treatise bearing that title; the agri- 
'' cultural Middle, Northern, and ^yestern States joined with those 
more occupied with manufactures, as in a common interest, to 
i impose higher duties upon imports, and the tariff of 1824: was 
passed. There was, however, something too much of the spirit of 
countervailing duties in this act, and something too little of the 
sound expediency which should have ruled its provisions. These 
faults were, in a good degree, avoided by the tariff of 1828. Its 
average rates upon the dutiable, and upon the total imports, ran 
something higher, as in the circumstances . they should do, than 
those of any tariff enacted since. The success of all its aims was 
absolutely perfect. One of the results which most suri^rised the 
/ Opposition party at home and abroad was the fact that it proved 
/ just as favorable to the national finances as if that had been the 
exclusive object of the policy. It accomplished all the aims of the 
men who devised it; but the impulse which prompted its enact- 
ment transcended the principle which should have ruled its special 
provisions. Its supporters did not venture upon a free list so large 
and so necessary as the policy of protection demands. Protection 
is simply defense; nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. 
Every deviation from this ruling object is, sooner or later, mis- 
chievous. The framers, perhaps, feared a failure of revenue. The 
statesmen of the time had not had a sufiiciently large experience of 
a true protective policy to comprehend fully its working forces in 
every direction. They had a lurking fear that adequate protec- 



PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 199 

tive duties must necessarily diminish tlie revenue from customs. 
They did not, and they could not, understand the matter as a still 
more varied and complete experience has instructed us, after forty 
years of additional observation and trial. 

In 1832 the duties of 1828 were modified; tea, coffee, and a large 
amount, in variety and value, of foreign imports, which in no way 
interfered with domestic production, but rather ministered to it, 
were exempted from taxation. But, the whole national debt had 
been too quickly reduced, the mass of individual and general pros- 
perity had been realized too suddenly, and the most fortunate people 
under the sun were seized with the belief that the accumulations in 
the national treasury would soon become unmanageable, unless they 
took early measures to provide against its overflow. The economic 
sciolists were as sure as they could be of anything, that a reduction 
of the rates of duty to a given percentage would reduce the revenue 
exactly as much. The same party — embracing the theorists who 
learn all they know by thinking, and those who theorize without 
the help of thought — afterwards made up their minds that the 
lower duties yield the larger revenue. Secretary Walker, in 1846, 
built this doctrine into a free trade axiom. Secretary Guthrie in 
1856 acted upon it as an unquestionable truth, and now their 
lineally descended disciples are quite as sure that the higher the 
rate the larger the revenue ! We have had enough of this. 

In 1832, six or seven years of adequate protection had passed, and 
the time had come for a change. The terrible experiences of the 
periods of free trade which followed our first and second war with 
Great Britain were forgotten. Statesmen had arisen who knew not 
George the Third. The country had waxed fat as Jeshurun, and 
it was time to kick the policy that had " covered it with fatness." 
South Carolina went into nullification, Virginia sanctioned the 
doctrine ; Alabama and Georgia took the same ground ; Calhoun 
resigned the Vice Presidency; Hayne and Webster made immortal 
speeches ; the foreground candidates for the next presidency foresaw 
their danger ; and " the Father of the American system," the " great 
compromiser, and pacificator " postponed the Rebellion, by giving 
it all that it asked then, with a fairly implied promise of all that it 
might ask thereafter, and so, we took another turn of the free trade 
screw, in the shape of the compromise act of 1833. 

Under this act, which abandoned the protection of domestic 



200 QUESTIONS OP THE DAY. 

labor, the imports, in the first three years of its operation, averaged 
one hundred and twenty-two millions, against an average of seventy 
millions for the last five years of the act of 1828. At the end of 
1836 there was a surplus in the treasury of forty-six and a half 
millions. Was not this ample proof that lower duties yield the 
larger revenue ? Not a word of it. Forty-four and a half millions 
of this amount came from the sales of the public lands. They 
never before yielded more than three millions in any one year. In 
183-1, the first year of the compromise, they yielded five millions, in 
1835 nearly fifteen, and in 1836 nearly twenty-five millions. The 
revenue from customs was less in every one of these three years 
than it had been since 1826. 

A movement, collateral and concurrent, ran along with these 
changes in the industrial policy of the first three years of reduced 
duties upon imports. At the beginning of the year 1831: there were 
in circulation in the United States ninety-five millions of bank 
notes ; the loans and discounts of the banks amounted to three hun- 
dred and twenty-four millions ; at the close of 1836 the bank circu- 
lation had swollen to one hundred and forty-nine millions ; and the 
loans and discounts to above five hundred millions; an increase, in 
each of these particulars, of above fifty per cent in three years ! In 
May, 1837, the banks suspended specie payments all over the 
country. 

This is the order of the facts : a sudden increase of imports, 
amounting to seventy-five per cent; a sudden increase in the bank 
circulation and discounts, amounting to above fifty per cent; a sud- 
den increase of the sale of public lands, equal to four hundred per 
cent, or, as forty-five millions to nine. 

These facts mean this, and nothing else : an increase of the im- 
ports called for the increase of bank issues and credits, and the labor 
and capital previously employed in manufactures in the Eastern 
and Middle States, crowded out by the influx of foreign goods, were 
driven to the West to seek investment and support. The whole 
history of the United States, without an exceptional instance, shows 
that whenever the treasury was gorged by receipts from customs 
and the proceeds of the public lands, a money crisis was in lull press- 
ure, and, that a general bankruptcy of Government, banks, and 
people inevitably followed. No excessive bank issues and credits 
ever once occurred, or could occur, (previous to the date of the 



PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 201 

great Rebellion), under a protective tariff. And we add that, no 
overdealing in anything except foreign commodities can greatly or 
even considerably, shake the finances of the Nation and of the 
people, simply because no other sort of speculation or overtrading, 
be they ever so wild, throws out of employment the industry of the 
country and the capital associated with it in production. 

This proposition is commended, by the facts involved, to the con- 
sideration of those who are accustomed to blame our periodic 
revulsions upon an extravagant credit inflation, or upon a depreci- 
ated currency. Such revulsions are neither inevitable nor inexpli- 
cable. Our history exposes the causes plainly, and suggests the 
remedy; and what is better, the means of prevention. Just give 
our labor and capital their well secured opportunity for maintaining 
the industrial independence of the country, and we will have no 
more of them — under a protective tariff the people can sustain 
another war of four years with any foe, domestic or foreign, and 
another five thousand millions of expenditure, as they have sus- 
. tained the last, without one of these "inevitable and inexplicable 
revulsions." 

Well, the seven years of unprotected American industry, stretch- 
ing from 1833 to 1840, drove the people once more to reflection, 
and a general revolt of the country once more branded the alien 
policy^ turned its advocates out of power, and replaced free trade by 
the protective tariff of 1842; which was by far the best one we have 
had to this day. In four years it had fully demonstrated its wisdom 
by extricating the country from all its difficulties, except the 
theories of the Revenue Reformers of that day, and the resistance 
of that portion of the Nation whose system of production n^ver 
intended the labor of the country for the benefit of its laborers, or 
looked to the prosperity of the Union for the sake of the Union. 
Among them, they modified the tariff of 1842 in 1846, chiefly by 
substituting ad valorem for specific duties, for, this mode of assess- 
ing imposts opens the door for all sorts of frauds, especially those of 
undervaluation in the invoices, and the equally dangerous device of 
temporary underselling, even at a loss, for the sake of crushing out 
the competing home industry which the imports must meet in the 
invaded market. Still, the tariff of 1846 was discriminative in its 
schedules, and protective in its rates, in spite of the vices incident to 
its administration ; and the Nation's boundless energy and resources 
14 



202 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

fought the good fight under it with an average of advantages. A 
succession of lucky chances fell in to corroborate it — the general 
scarcity in Western Europe, followed by the famine of 1^8 ; the 
discovery of gold in California, in 1848-9 ; the Crimean war in 
. 1854-56 ; a tripled export of domestic productions, occasioned, in 
part, by an accidental foreign demand, but mainly by an exhaustive , 
enterprise in the product of cotton and tobacco for exportation, 
which in ten years advanced from fifty to one hundred and forty 
millions per annum ) and above all, the indomitable enterprise of 
the people — all these together brought about such a measure of 
general prosperity, that the old enemy found its opportunity in a 
full treasury for another assault, and a successful one^ upon the 
policy which always exposes itself by its very successes to the 
charge of having accomplished its object and fulfilled its mission. 
Accordingly, a twenty-five per cent reduction of the duties was 

7 effected in 1857, and was followed, .necessarily, by another sudden 
: increase of imports, with another suspension of specie payments at 
its heels. The imports for consumption now went up to $11.82 per 
head of the population from 85.42, or to more than double the 
average at which they stood in 1846; and the bank circulation and 
loans, following, naturally, were also something more than doubled 
— the loans rising from three hundred and twelve to six hundred 
and thirty-four millions, and the circulation from one hundred and 
five to two hundred and fourteen millions, which was not only a 
doubling of aggregate amounts but left a margin that nearly doubled 
the per capita average of the increased numbers of the population 
— another instance for the deception of the bullionists, but another 
proof that credit and currency inflation always follows excessive 
\ importations. The public debt in the mean time had gone up from 
sixteen and three-quarters to twenty-nine millions, and rose, still 
further, to. sixty-four millions in 1860 under the tariff of 1857. 

Judging by all the experience of the past, the short suspension 
of September 1857, would have been followed in 1861 by a 
general explosion, if that other grand result of free trade, the great 
civil war, had not come down upon us and broken up the rule 
of all financial precedents. The imports per capita in 1836, the 

iyear preceding the great revulsion of 1837, were 810.93; in the 
year preceding that of 1857 they were 810.88; and now, in 1860, 
they had risen to 810.80, an amount which, under non-protective 



PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. 203 

tariffs, always insured the return of the " inevitable and inex- ^ 
plicable " plague within a twelvemonth. 

In 1861, and as yet, for the last time, another turn of the tide 
concurred with the outbreak of the Rebellion, as the like return of 
the redeeming and corrective policy of protection always came, to 
meet and repair the ravages of the free trade system. It gave us the 
Morrill tariff, and that, with its amendments, raising the rates upon 
duty-paying imports to nearly the average of the tariff of 1828, 
put us through the civil war, and for six years of peace has 
averted a collapse of our credit, and sustained our labor enterprise, 
to the extent and with the fullness of effect, that has in all past 
times aroused the resistance which never misses its opportunity. 
With a debt of twenty-three hundred millions upon us, the Treasury - 
is overflowing. From customs more than equal in amount to all other 
sources of public revenue during the last two years, the Treasury 
has paid of the principal of the public debt above two hundred 
millions, besides bearing all other charges, and, accordingly, free 
trade is again rampant and resolute and armed, as of yore, with all 
its favorite arguments for such a reduction of duties on imports as 
they think the Treasury can spare. Again, the goose that lays the 
golden eggs has grown so fat that she is just ready for the spit ! 

Under the conviction that history rightly rendered is philosophy 
teaching by experience, this brief sketch of the effective and 
instructive points in our frequent and violent contrasts of policy is 
submitted as a study for candid inquirers. Its details would 
greatly strengthen our argument, but we have been compelled to 
confine the narrative to the facts and figures which are the sum- 
maries and the interpreters of the particulars. 



CHAPTER XV. 

DOCTRINE AND POLICY OF PROTECTION. 

What Protection is and what it intends. — In its exactest sense it is Defense. — 
Domestic industries encouraged by other means than protection strictly' implies 
and employs. — Bonuses, market monopolieSj and countervailing duties not of 
its essence, nor embraced in its policy. — Bonuses employed by Colbert — their 
difficulties and dangers. — Government subsidies not of its system nor em- 
braced in the principle. — The protective principle vitiated by the spirit of 
countervailing duties, and practically weakened or destroyed. — The British 
system, repudiating protective, adopts countervailing, duties — a change of terms 
to cover an unchanged policy. — Henry Clay and his compeers led astray by 
accepting and substituting them for the substantive, self-supporting, and 
unconditional doctrine of protection proper. — Principles and aims of protec- 
tion defined, and its subjects and operations ascertained and limited. — It is 
not taxation. — It recognizes no distinction between luxuries and common 
necessaries of life. — Its spirit refuses invidious classifications of society. — 
Duties that are not defensive are taxes under another name — they are foreign 
to protection. — The rule of taxation is by ad valorem assessments. — Protection 
has no regard to values, and refuses the ad valorem rule. — Ad valorems, in 
customs duties, infamous for their frauds, perjuries, inequality of operation, 
and treachery to the interests of home labor — everj'where avoided, except 
when employed to defeat protection. — The Prussian Zollverein in striking 
illustration. — Protection is not adverse to foreign trade in principle or opera- 
tion — it allows and favors supplementary commerce, and restricts only injuri- 
ously competitive trade. — It does not look to revenue, but it does, incidentally, 
secure it. — The system in our history entitles it to be described, a tariff for pro- 
tection with incidental, but always abundant, revenue. — The finance tables of 
the Treasury Department show that "revenue tariffs" always, before the Rebel- 
lion, failed to supply revenue, and that protective tariffs always met the 
expenditures of the Government. — Our highest rates of duty have given us 
the largest foreign trade — in 1860, under an average of nineteen per cent upon 
the dutiable imports, only two hundred and eighty millions worth imported; 
under a forty-six per cent duty, in 1870, the imports rose to four hundred and 
fifteen millions. — English superiority excludes manufactured goods, yet her 
imports have swollen from seven hundred and forty to thirteen hundred and 
thirty-three million of dollars in ten years. — The tariff rates of France almost 
prohibited foreign manufactures, yet commerce rose two and a half times in 
twenty years. — The adage, " if you don't buy you cannot sell," a plausible 
sophistry as applied to American trade. — Protection intends the utmost possi- 
204 



THEORY AND POLICY OF PROTECTION. 205 

ble diversification of the Nation's industries. — Argument of the free trade 
authorities for confining the United States to the production of provisions and 
raw materials. — Diiferent educational and pecuniary value of diiFerent kinds of 
labor. — Changed condition of laborers in modern production. — The necessity of 
preserving the whole range of choice among the varied industries, in order to 
give employment to every variety of powers and faculties. — Special interest of 
women in the reserve of labor suitable to the sex. — Extent to which they were 
found capable of the manufacturing arts in 1860. — The concessions of social 
and political power in expectation, demand a special care in securing for them 
the largest range of industrial employments. — They must be either in the self- 
supporting, the dependent, or the dangerous class of the community. — The freed- 
men of the South must have opportunity to enter the occupations of skilled 
labor, or go back to the drudgeries to which slavery formerly confined them. 
Already their labor has gorged the cotton market, its price has nearly 
touched the lowest which it ever reached, and wages must go down with it. — 
A diversified, which must be a protected, range of industries equally necessary 
to our women and negroes. 

It is in place now to state what Protection is, and what it intends. 
The treatment of this topic, however brief, will necessarily embrace 
a notice of the policy, as it has been tried in other countries, under 
modification of their varied conditions. 

The force and value of Protection in its essential, its operative 
sense, is fully covered by the word defense. This is more and better 
than a mere synonym — it measures the meaning of the word, and it 
restricts the principle exactly to the province of its rightful rule. 
Protection does encourage and foster the industries to which it is 
applied, but, encouragement sometimes embraces bonuses, extended 
by the government, or exclusive privileges of the market secured to 
industrial enterprise, or other exceptional forms of favor, which are 
not simply defensive against foreign competition. Sometimes pro- 
tection takes the shape of countervailing duties, imposed to retaliate 
foreign legislation adverse to the domestic exports of the country 
adopting them. The first of these forms of encouragement is liable 
to serious objections, in most of the instances in which it is employed, 
and, at best, requires extraordinary skill and discrimination in its use, 
Colbert, the great finance minister of Louis XIV., gave, from theS 
national treasury, two thousand livres to each loom put to_work, for ; 
the purpose of establishing the system of textile manufactures, which 
took its origin, and owed its great and enduring success, to that and 
other efi'ective forms of support. The like policy has been, in a multi- 
tude of instances, followed by the governments of Europe; and, liable 
as the measure was in its nature to abuse, and abused as it generally 



206 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

was, it has since fallen into general reprobation. It often was " class 
legislation" in an offensive form, and is only allowed now under 
cover of some other pretext wliicli gives it protection: such as 
subsidies, under the guise of contracts for carrying the mails at sea; 
or gifts of public lands and the loan of the national credit, to rail- 
road corporations for the construction of highways for the carriage 
of the mails, and military transportation in the deserts, and over the 
Rocky Mountains of the United States. Of this system of govern- 
ment aids to private enterprises, we have nothing now to say, except 
that it is not that protection of the common interests of the com- 
munity which is strictly defensive in its essence; and, while we take 
no present exceptions to it, we also abstain from making any defense 
for it; it is not Protection, in our sense of the term, or our meaning 
of the thing. It is broadly distinguished by the circumstance that 
it means money paid out of the treasury to the benefit of specific 
enterprises, and is not general, uniform, and equitable, in its opera- 
tion, unless made so indirectly by the wisdom, impartiality, and 
diffusive beneficence of the grant; of which, by the way, it is very 
hard to be sufficiently assured. 

The principle of countervailing duties is indeed defensive and 
protective, but in a narrowly limited range. While England legis- 
lated in an unfriendly spirit upon the interests of our domestic 
exports and maritime trade, the spirit of resistance to aggression 
swallowed up the true principle of protection. The popular argu- 
ment, then most effective, turned upon this retaliatory aspect of the 
policy; and, when the evil was tolerably well abated, protection, 
proper, had lost its support by the loss of its accidental and non-essen- 
tial provocation. England, about forty years ago, finding her policy of 
__ foreign trade endangered by the existence of the protection system 
of other countries, whom she needed as customers, and requiring no 
/' further protection of her own home markets against foreign compe- 
) tition in them, gave up the name and opposed the policy, but retained 
■^ so much of it, nevertheless, as her interests demanded, under the 
, name of countervailing duties. Thus she now protects her manu- 
factures of tobacco, spirits, and sugar, by a system of duties upon 
their import, equivalent to a barrier of fifty millions of dollars a 
year, against their introduction from abroad. These duties are not 
adopted to counteract or punish any foreign nation's tariffs upon any 
of her exports, but to equalize the excise duties which the govern- 



THEORY AND POLICY OP PROTECTION. 207 

ment lays upon the domestic production of the kinds of articles so 
charged. 

If British free-traders will not allow us to call a fifty-million 
charge, upon these manufactures, over and above the imposts laid 
upon the raw materials, protective, because they are only intended 
to countervail her own internal taxes upon the like articles, we may 
be allowed to exclude the term from our definition of protective 
duties, proper. Our principal and sufficient reason, however, is that 
protection, passing under this name, confuses our reasonings, and, 
besides, falls mischievously short of the true principle and purpose 
of defensive duties upon imported goods. We might, indeed, 
effectually retort the English dodge by employing the phrase to 
cover the difference between us, in the cost of labor, the interest of 
capital, and the heavy burden of our domestic taxes upon produc- 
tion, and call the import duties, not protective, but countervailing 
to the great advantages our rivals hold over us in our home markets 
under an untaxed trade in their competing commodities ; but we 
prefer the downright and direct avowal of the principle, and the 
frank maintenance of the policy essentially belonging to it. More- 
over, we remember how unwisely the very ablest advocates of "The 
American System," in the earlier days of Clay and V/ebster, and 
before England had adopted free trade, threw their force upon the 
merely counteractive feature of the policy, and we are sure that, 
turning the argument for protection upon the pivot of countervailing 
duties, damaged the principle greatly when their particular provo- 
cation was removed. Countervailing legislation could find its reasons 
only in the practice of foreign countries, and however well justified, 
still made the true principle depend upon an accident, or a caprice, 
or a mistake of governments over which we had no control. It was 
a resting of our separate and independent rights upon the aggressive 
wrongs of our enemies, while they kept that injurious attitude 
towards us ; but did nothing for the maintenance of those rights, 
'when the injury took a different form. They need defense, by their 
intrinsic necessities, let foreigners infringe them in whatever manner 
they may choose. 

By protection we mean needed defense of industrial enterprises 
'whose success is the common interest of the community. We do 
not mean " class legislation," or the establishment of monopolies in 
production or trade, but the development of the productive power of 



208 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

the Nation, with a due distribution of its benefits to every industrial 
interest of the whole people. Protection means^ first, freedom of 
industry and trade at home, and eventually, free foreign trade. It 
must have nothing in it of the spirit of war, either between classes 
of interest at home, or with the nations abroad. It is a law of 
national welfare, and as a law it intends liberty, and cannot employ 
any form of compulsion, except for its defense and maintenance. 
The spirit of justice and peace which pervades and rules it, requires 
that in the selection of enterprises to be fostered, the legislature 
shall be guided by the same prudence that governs a man in giving 
credit, or other aid, to his neighbor entering upon a new business, 
or embarrassed in an old one — the fair probability that he will in 
due time be able to make himself independent of such assistance, 
and fully repay to the helper all his advances — that is, the enter- 
prise must be practicable, promising, timely, and generally beneficial; 
else it is not a case to be so assisted, and is not entitled to the favor. 
As no favoritism to classes must be indulged, so, no hostility to 
any class can be allowed. For this reason, the notion that luxuries 
should bear higher duties thau articles of common necessity, has 
nothing of the proper policy of protection to industry in it, nor, 
indeed, has it anything else to recommend it to the acceptance of" 
the masses, but the contrary. 

r Protection is totally misunderstood, and fatally abused, when it 
is reasoned upon, or employed, as identical with taxation. It 
means and intends the protection of domestic labor, skill and 
enterprise, and of the capital which they employ. These are 
not benefited by a tax, under the name of an import duty, 
upon such luxuries of manufacture or of agriculture as the country 
cannot produce for its consumption. Invidious distinctions in 
a tarifi" of customs between the consumption of the rich and 
of the poor, have no help in them for the labor of the poor. 
Moreover, those things are usually classed as luxuries which the 
poor cannot well afi'ord to purchase. To burden them distinctively 
is simply to put them still further out of the reach of the poor; and 
like all other prejudices of classes, it only operates to the injury 
of the weaker partj^, and under the guise of a preference for the 
common people, really keeps up the worst of aristocratic distinctions 
— those which touch the most general interests of social life. Tea 
and cofi'ee were treated by our revenue laws as luxuries until the 



THEORY AND POLICY OP PROTECTION. 20^ 

protective principle set them free of duty in 1832. So soon as they 
went into the free list, they became the common fare of every cot- 
tage in the country. Coffee for the twenty previous years was taxed 
five cents per pound ; and teas, from fourteen to sixty-eight cents, 
according to quality. These duties were taxes^ pure and simple, for 
they did not protect any American industry. Since then we have 
imported for consumption as much as seven pounds of coffee per 
head of the total population, or nearly twice as much for the actual 
consumers. What would the laboring people have gained by paying 
about three-fourths of the annual ten millions of duties, under the 
old rule, upon the article, in order to tax it as a luxury ? Or what 
would they have gained by confining themselves to inferior teas, at 
fourteen cents a pound duty, in order to make wealthy people pay 
sixty-eight cents on theirs ? If we apply this doctrine of luxury to 
silks or furs or any other article of dress which we do not produce,. 
its effect would be that the- wife and daughters of the man of mod- 
erate means, when they go into the street or to church, must betray 
the economy which his circumstances compel. Protection, ruled by 
equity and tending to equality, is guilty of no such misdemeanors 
as this. When taxing is the object for the uses of revenue, lay it 
on wherever it should be borne, and in reference to the ability to 
bear it, but never allow the idea to enter a tariff for protection ; and 
this for other reasons which will hereafter appear. 

While upon this point, the essential distinction between taxes and 
protective duties, we must be indulged with a word upon the man- 
ner and rule of assessing protective duties. 

In levying internal taxes, or taxes upon imports for the support 
of Government, the ad valorem rule of assessment distributes the- 
burden equitably upon all the various species of taxable property. 
A fixed percentage, according to valuation, covers fairly and uni- 
formly all its subjects, the intention being, that every property 
holder shall contribute to the support of the Grovernment in propor- 
tion to his means, and every consumer in proportion to his con- 
sumption, when unhappily the public exigencies require such an 
extension of its demand. The ad valorem rule with its universality 
of range, has no place in the policy of protection. To admit it in 
the assessment of duties is to sweep away the whole doctrine of pro- 
tection. Free traders are its consistent advocates. To give it any 
influence whatever in our. reasonings upon protection is to confound 



210 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

and vitiate the whole process. The enemy has sown these tares in 
our field while we slept, and must not be allowed to reproach us 
■with the faults of the harvest. Previous to 1846, ad valorems were 
not tolerated in our tariffs, wherever they could be avoided; and 
when protection true and earnest was restored, in 1861, specific 
duties were restored, not extensively enough, indeed, but with a 
resolute purpose to avoid the departures from principle in fixing the 
rates, and the never-absent frauds, of the ad valorem system — 
frauds by which the industry of the country is cheated of its 
defenses, and the treasury of its revenues, and all honest importers 
are discounted disastrously by their unscrupulous rivals in trade. 
They offer a premium to dishonesty; they falsify invoices ; they pay 
for perjury in the custom house; they make semi-smugglery a 
policy of trade, and demoralize the whole merchant class by dis- 
couraging and fining truth and integrity heavily. They are every- 
way fitted, in purpose and practice, for defeating protection, and are, 
accordingly, a prime principle of free trade. England, having respect 
only to her revenue, and fair play among her own importers, scouts 
ad valorems from her lists of impost duties. When she was 
deriving twenty millions of pounds from customs, she took but one 
quarter of a million in ad valorems, and such were their inherent 
and inseparable frauds, that parliament appointed a committee to rid 
the customs schedules of every possible vestige of them. This 
committee indicated its object and intention, by charging artificial 
flowers by the cubic feet in the box containing them, overlooking 
all differences of value, to escape the frauds of undervaluation. Not 
a government on earth that knows what it is about, gives them any 
toleration ; and especially those which intend protection repudiate 
them just as they do free trade in any other disguise. 

One of these disguises, and the most insidious of them, takes the 
shape of what is called among us, "a tariff for revenue with inci- 
dental protection," assessed upon imports by the ad valorem rule. 
In this form, even when stripped of their other inherent frauds, 
their malignant hostility to the protection which is intended or 
pretended, is conspicuously manifest. Their workings are after this 
fashion : when the prices of foreign goods are so high that little or 
no protection against them is required, the duty pe""r cent upon such 
value carries up the prices to an absurd extent, and protection is 
mocked with the aid it does not need, and charged with an exorbi- 



THEORY AND POLICY OF PROTECTION. 211 

tance whicli it did not intend; and, when prices go down the duties 
go down with them, and protection altogether fails just where it is 
needed. Another feature of their mischievous principle is, that 
they make the government a party and an accomplice when by un- 
derselling, the foreigner aims at crushing out a domestic industry. 
Then the price is put ruinously low and the ad valorem duty goes 
down in the like proportion, thus making the tariff itself a full 
partner in the trick. The steel rail manufacture newly introduced 
in the United States, affords a clear example of the vice of which 
the foreign enemy so easily avails himself. 

Protection aims at and addresses all its measures and methods to 
the defense of the industry employed in the production of a com- 
modity, and has nothing to do with its market value. It confronts 
the importer with the purpose to secure the right of domestic labor 
in the production of the article against all its disadvantages; and lays 
on any amount of duty that will do that. 

The Prussian Zollverein is, and ever has been, purely protective. 
In the earlier years of its operation it charged cotton goods, without 
any respect to quality or value, thirty-two dollars and twenty-five 
cents upon every hundred pounds weight imported. The effect of 
this specific duty was that coarse shirting paid the equivalent of 
ninety per cent upon its invoice value ; sujyerior shirting paid only 
thirty-two and a half per cent, and fine printed cottons were admitted 
at eight and three-fourths per cent. The Zollverein intended pro- 
tection and not revenue. It took care of its infant manufactures 
effectually, by the heaviest duties, and properly abstained from 
taxing those goods which its laborers were not yet able to produce. 
It did not exclude those finer goods from its markets, nor its com- 
mon people from their use. Oa the same principle, and with the 
eame purpose, it charged all kinds of cutlery at a uniform rate, by 
the pound, letting in razors, penknives, and the like fine wares at a 
merely nominal rate, and laying the protective stress upon hatchets, 
axes, and a great variety of hardware, which the Germans were able, 
under suflicient defense against Great Britain, to manufacture for 
themselves. This was protection pure and simple, and .the result 
was, as the Germans advanced in skill from one stage to another 
they found the specific rates of each successive stage sufficiently pro- 
tective, though constantly declining in ad valorem rates, until in 
the end, which was steadily and persistently guarded, German 



212 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

cutlery attained superiority in quality and greater cheapness in price 
tlian the foreign articles, which if admitted under inadequate pro- 
tective duties, or, under a revenue tariff system, would have crushed 
the enterprise of the people in the bud. Germany, to day, shows 
what her fifty years of fostered and defended industry could do for 
a people so low in the scale of European powers, that her fortresses 
were garrisoned with French troops and her territory under French 
dominion, till England, that had been subsidizing her through the 
Continental wars, finally overthrew Napoleon the First at Waterloo, 
as Germany has just now overthrown his nephew at Sedan. But 
we are running again into history, in the development of a theoretic 
principle, because truths that have working force in them always 
tend to the facts which vindicate them. 

The system of protection employs, exclusively, duties upon im- 
ports to effect its objects; and, intending only to defend domestic 
industry, it properly selects for its operation only those foreign pro- 
ducts which compete with the freedom and extension of such 
domestic industries as the country is prepared to undertake with 
the view of self supply. It is not arrayed against foreign trade and 
exchanges in anything else than those commodities whose admission 
injures thfe labor and prevents the enjoyment of the home market. 
AVisely devised and worked, it never does in any respect, nor to any 
degree, repress or diminish any healthful foreign commerce. Its 
legitimate object is to preserve for the people an unliigited choice 06 
occupations fitted to their economic conditions. It will not forbid or 
burden the importation of wheat into territories incapable of pro- 
ducing such grain, nor will it tax any amount of importation of 
such grain or any of its substitutes, which supply its own defici- 
encies, unless where such an import represses its own production. 
The rule of the principle is to freely allow and favor all really sup- 
plementary trade, and to oppose none but such as is injuriously 
competitive. Looking 'steadily to the fullest employment of its own 
labor, and the greatest practicable development of its native 
resources, including raw materials, available capital, skill and 
enterprise, and their most judicious enhancement, it turns away 
from all other aims and avoids all their embarrassments ; and it has 
nothing to do with market prices except as these affect productive 
power and act upon consumption. 

If, owing to the circumstances of the country, a tariff of pro- 



THEORY AND POLICY Or PROTECTION. 213 

tective duties can also be made to secure an adequate, or any con- 
siderable, amount of revenue to the government, the principle and 
policy of the system freely allows such an excellent accompani- 
ment as a consequence of its own necessary operation ; and it is a 
striking characteristic of the systen^ that it always does do so. As 
long as the circumstances of any nation require the imposition of 
duties upon foreign merchandise for the defense of its own imma- 
ture or otherwise embarrassed productive forces, and just so long, it 
also pays its proceeds into the national exchequer. Only when, as ] 
in England, protection is no longer necessary, and its levies, there- 
fore, fail, does protection fail to replenish the public treasury. In 
proof, so far as our own experience is concerned, it is a striking / 
fact that, every period of sound protection which we have enjoyed, / 
has amply provided for the national expenditure, and only the.iii 
tariffs constructed with the sole or principal view to securing 4 
revenue have utterly failed to accomplish that intention. Any"^ 
expert in statistics acquainted with the concurrent events, need but 
to glance over the column headed " Customs" in the general table 
of treasury receipts from the year 1791 to 1860, to see the clearest 
proof of this fact. He will invariably find that the first and second 
years of every free trade tariff" are marked by a sudden increase of the 
amount of these duties, with a rapid decline thereafter, till the end 
of the period, at which the deficit of receipts marks the utter I 
failure of all such tariffs to provide a sufiicient revenue for the 
ordinary expenses of the government; and he will see, also, a regu- 
lar rise and steady sufficiency of customs for the uses of the gov- 
ernment from the second year and through each succeeding year of 
the protective tariffs, until such amplitude of exchequer supplies is 
again destroyed by its wretchedly delusive successor, designed to 
provide revenue only, or, in some cases, " revenue with incidental 
protection." • 

I ask no man to accept my statement of this instructive history 
gratuitously; let him study the subject for himself; and, it is not 
too much to ask him to do so, before he ever again talks of a 
'^revenue tariff" as something different in rates and subjects from 
a truly and permanently protective one, as concerns the finances of 
our own country in its past history or its present condition.* 

"•■•■ Under the unprotective tariff of 1816 the customs went down from thirty- 
-six millions in that year to thirteen millions in 1821; under the protective tariff 



/ 



214 QUESTIONS OP THE DAY. 

Some of the propositions here so briefly presented for the pur- 
pose of describing the principles and aims of the system, demand 
something further in their exposition. 
/ We have said that protection is not restrictive of foreign trade — 
and we mean to say this both with respect to the money and the 
economic value of such international commerce as a true policy 
provides for. 

On this point it is in itself conclusive of all debate to refer ta 
the fact that in 1860 the highest value of foreign imports was 
reached. The dutiable goods imported in that year amounted to 
two hundred and eighty millions, under an average rate of nineteen 
per cent. This was commerce under free trade. In the year 1870 
the dutiable imports had risen to four hundred and fifteen and 
"^ three-quarters millions, at an average rate of forty-six and three- 
eighths per cent. Here we have a system of duties two and a half 
times higher, allowing or inducing an importation within a fraction 
of one and a half times greater than under the lower rates ! 

This is a sufficient refutation of the charge that protective duties 
are restrictive of foreign trade, so far as the United States in their 
economic conditions are concerned. But the same thing is just as 
true of all nations, in all possible differences of conditions. We 
will take an extreme case : The English authorities, led by J. R. 

of 1S24 and 1828 they rose to twenty-nine millions in 183.3, rising steadily and 
gradually with the growth of the general prosperity. Under the compromise act 

,^ of 1833 they declined to eleven millions in 1837, and under the protective tariff 
of 1842 they rose again to twentj--six millions in 1846. Under the act of that 
year they fluctuated, going down eleven millions in a year, at two periods, 
'and up again eleven millions in a single year, and stood at sixty-three 
millions in 1857, showing through the whole course of the act of 1846 the 
unsteadiness of its protective provisions and the mischiefs of its ad valorem 
rates — it was then, at one of those inflation stages which belong to the character 
of revenue tarifi's, and which invariably indicate their explosion. The act of 
1857 came just in time to precipitate the result, and accordingly the receipts from 
customs fell in one year twenty-two millions, which was a million less than they 
had been seven years before. Next comes the crowning demonstration under the 
several protective tariflFs or amendments of that of 1861. The revenue from 

— ^ customs has risen in nine years from forty-nine to one hundred and ninety-four mil- 
lions. Which of these were the true revenue tarifi"s ? Not one of them except 
the strictly protective tariS"?, and they exactly in the degree that they were pro- 
tective. Every so-called revenue tariff was a failure of its avowed purpose, and 
a catastrophe to the Treasury and the business of the country besides. I appeal 
to the record — there the facts stand in overwhelming force. 



THEORY AND POLICY OF PROTECTION. 215 

McCulIoch, and followed in England and America by all the lazy 
thinkers of his school, put their point thus : '' Those who will not 
buy need not expect to sell ; and conversely ; it is impossible to 
export without making a corresponding importation." Now how 
does this plausible platitude sustain itself in its application to our 
system of protection of manufactures — the very thing against 
which it is leveled ? 

England does not buy foreign manufactures, yet she expects to 
sell and does sell her commodities. Her superiority in production 
amounts to an almost total exclusion of manufactures from her 
ports; they amount to only a fraction less than six per cent of the 
total value of her imports, yet those totals amounted in 1854 to 
seven hundred and forty millions of dollars, and in 1864 to thir- 
teen hundred and thirty-three millions. 

Again, take France, with her protective rates and restrictions 
almost prohibitive of competition in her own markets. During the 
ten years, 1827 to 1836, her aggregate imports and exports amounted 
to thirteen thousand three hundred and sixty-one millions of francs. 
After an interval of twenty years, in the ten years from 1847 to 
1856, with her prohibitive system in full operation all the while, 
they had risen to the value of thirty-one thousand three hundred 
and sixty-one millions. 

These immensely varied results utterly demolish the wretchedly 
unmeaning aphorism that is employed to array the protective 
system against the interests of foreign trade, even when measured 
by its money value. It would be too stupid to propose it against 
the economic value of the trade which it guards, selects, and 
secures ; and we may dismiss it without further remark on this 
head, having already in our chapters on " Commerce " amply 
exposed its mischief to the labor and enterprise which it touches 
only to destroy. 

If there is any one of the intentions of the protective system 
worthier than another of the heartiest approbation, it is its design 
and its power to diversify the industries of the people who adopt it. 
As the elucidation of this topic involves some of the vicious gen- 
eralizations of the let-alone-theory of foreign trade, they may be 
appropriately noticed here. 

The jumble of truisms and generalities of this school of econo- 
mists owe their origin to a curious class of college professors. 



216 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

professional litterateurs, metaphysicians, and professional world- 
menders. Such is their description iu England, Germany, and 
France, and among them may be found, here and there, a few 
theologians who have taken leading positions among the authorities, 
covering with their " pale cast of thought the native hue of prac- 
tical affairs, and turning awry their currents till they lose the 
name of action ;" while here and everywhere their antagonists 
are, in the main, men of practical acquaintance with, and interest 
in, the affairs of individual and national concern. 

Taking for example the case of a country like our own; 
comparatively young, exceedingly fertile, capable of every variety 
of agricultural production — from the cereals that affect the cooler 
climates of the North, to the sugar and cotton that demand 
a semi-tropical temperature — with its improved lands very cheap, 
and millions of unappropriated acres that may be had for little 
more than the cost of preparing them for the plough, and in all 
respects eminently fitted for furnishing provisions and raw mate- 
rials. The inference drawn by these theorists is that, nature, by 
these circumstances, makes farming, planting, and lumbering our 
distinctive occupations, and invites our energies into these special 
fields of industry. Now, there is nothing in a statement so general 
as this that anybod}'^ need dispute. But there are some other 
things just as true, which must be considered before we draw from 
it a practical policy of national conduct. 

In the first place : if labor is really the source of wealth, and the 
various forms or kinds of labor are not equally remunerative to the 
individual, or beneficial to the community, it behooves us, as soon 
as we are in a condition to choose among them, to ascertain whether 
exclusive agricultural labor is the most advantageous that we can 
adopt. We know, very certainly, that the wages of labor are not in 
all things equal ; that its products are of unequal value in the 
market ; and, that all varieties of work are not equally educating, 
because they do not all alike employ and develop the same moral, 
intellectual, and physical faculties ; and we know that wages and 
profits of employment grow with the education and training re- 
quired for the men thus variously engaged. The difference between 
skilled and unskilled labor is apparent enough, and the difference 
between their respective products and other results ought not to be 
forgotten when a people are in condition to make an election among 



THEORY AND POLICY OP PROTECTION. 217 

them. Nature has no more determined that any particular country, 
capable of anything else, shall confine itself to agriculture, than \ 
that "Washington should spend his life as a land surveyor, because -/ 
there was a wilderness full of that work for him in Virginia, and he 
was an expert in the business. The matter for that young man to 
decide, in choosing his occupation, was how he could best promote 
his own growth in worth and power, and best serve the general 
welfare ; and this is the very question for a community to solve in 
deciding upon its industrial policy. Nature has nothing to do with 
it, except in providing the means. Man is her master, on con- 
dition that he will be his own. Industry is no longer drudgery, 
mere muscle-work ; it is the art of making nature work in man's 
service obediently. It is not a matter of indifference to an individual ) 
or a community what sort of labor he or they shall adopt, when a 
choice presents itself. Unmixed agriculture cannot develop the^ 
skill and enterprise of a people, for the reason that it cannot ) 
accomplish that division of labor which brings into use every 
variety of ability, and associates a community by distributing its 
functions helpfully in accumulating wealth. The perfection of any 
organism, its rank and its worth, and the possibilities of its progress 
and growth, depend upon the number of its elementary differences, 
and, on their duly balanced activities. It is in the multitude of his 
parts and powers, and in the due exercise of all of them, that man 
takes rank of fish ; and a community, which is, in respect to 
interests and development, an aggregate man, a larger humanity, is 
put under the same law as to the component individualities, and 
depends upon the same conditions, for its worth and welfare. 

Without a very large diversification of productive businesses, 
one-half of its population — its women — must be put into the sup- 
ported class or driven to unsuited drudgery. The modern system 
of manufacture has taken from the household the spinning-wheel 
and the hand-loom. Four-fifths of the productive force employed 
upon textile fabrics is now the province of capital, in machinery, 
factories, and raw material. The domestic industry which a century 
ago was in the hands of women, is now taken from them ; and if 
they are not admitted to a participation in the employment and 
profit of such products, they are turned idle, or remitted to useless 
work that pays nothing to them. In the degree that they are, or 
may hereafter be, admitted into the government of the social and 
15 



218 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. . 

civil state, they will go into the dangerous class, for the very reason 
that they will be pecuniarily dependent upon the community. 

In 1850 women were twenty-three and a half in the hundred 
hands employed in the mining, mechanic, and manufacturing arts 
in the United States. Under the less favoring tariff of 1860 they 
had declined to twenty and a half per cent' of the total employees; 
but still their contributions to, and interest in, the manuftictures of 
the country at that time, show the importance to the sex of reserv- 
ing to the home industry of the people the supply of such com- 
modities as are fitted to their capabilities, which is, in some degree, 
indicated by the foct that in 1860 the women employed in such 
works were in number fully fifty-four per cent of all the hands 
engaged in them. Eighty-five millions of dollars were the wages 
paid to the aggregate of the employees, and the product was 
valued at four hundred and six millions. The whole number of 
women so employed were 212,383; together their wages in the year 
amounted to $33,500,000. 

Are not women greatly concerned, and is not the whole people as 
much interested in saving for the sex such a mass and such a value 
of suitable labor ? Nay, would not a complete system of protec- ■ 
tion throw out many thousand males who now preoccupy the places 
fitted for women, and give them that much more of independence 
and of the advantages of every kind attendant upon self-support- 
ing employments ? 

The signs of the times fairly promise the concession of all that is 
substantial, and all that is due to women, from the sex now governing 
them and controlling their welfare. This growing enfranchisement 
and responsibility of the subjects imperatively demand that all the 
necessary accompaniments should be provided. 

r Men have icorkcd themselves into civilization and the sovereignty 
of the elements, so far as they have gone, by skilled labor in 

J diversified branches of industry. The same thing, and all ap- 
proaches to it, however attained, can be maintained only by the 
same means and processes. Women, no more than men, can get 
possession and enjoyment of their abstract rights but by conforming 
to the law of progress, and the mere investiture of any kind, or 
any number of franchises, cannot secure their benefits to any class, 
sex, or race of mankind, but by compliance with the conditions on 
which such rights and liberties depend. 



THEORY AND POLICY OV PROTECTION. 219 

Before leaving tlie special dependence of our women upon the 
policy whicli alone can secure tliem the independence and the de- 
velopment which self-supporting industry affords, it is proper to 
turn their attention to the kinds of remunerative labor for which 
they have proved their fitness. The aggregate of wages and the 
numbers of the sex engaged, above stated, were employed in the 
manufacture of the following among the occupations reported by 
the census of 1860 : Paper boxes were made by 1,090 ; carpets, 
2,771 j clothing, 77,871; cotton goods employed, 76,110 ; hats and 
caps, 4,243 ; hosiery, 6,323 ; millinery and dress making^ 5,537 ; 
paper, 4,392; straw goods, 6,803; umbrellas and parasols, 1,410; 
woolen goods, 17,796; boots and shoes, 28,574; cigars, snuff, and 
tobacco, 3,721. Now these goods, and an endless variety, and a 
very great value, of other articles not enumerated, are the very 
commodities for the production of which foreign manufactures 
are in active competition with us. Let down the bars, and our 
women will be driven out of this immense field of employment, 
and excluded besides from at least an equally extensive additional 
territory of production for which they are well prepared, and ought 
to enjoy. Those among them who are agitating for the right of 
suffrage ought to be careful at the same time to qualify their con- 
stituents for a wise administration of the political power which 
they expect to wield. The ballot and idleness go badly together; 
they demoralize each other badly. Better for the disfranchised 
and for the public weal, if both sexes of idlers were debarred from 
the exercise of the law-making power, than confer it upon either, 
if the franchise only tends to throw the holders into the dema- 
gogue market. The masculine voter can make nothing out of his 
ballot but the corruption of office seeking and the opportunity of 
selling his soul at the polls, unless he be really independent of 
politics as a trade. 

The freedmen are in a somewhat different predicament. The ballot 
is to them protection from the persecution of the ruffianism of the 
country, and the means of security from the general prejudice of 
color. In this respect it is to them the greatest of social benefits. 
"Women do not need it for these purposes ; they are not exposed to 
the evils of an inferior caste in society. But the lately enfranchised 
negro, is in exactly the same position as our women in respect to 
the labor question. If the opportunity for entering the field of the 



220 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

skilled industries is destroyed through the preoccupation of our 
markets for their products, by the cheap labor of foreigners, they 
will be driven back to the very kinds of labor which occupied them 
in slavery, and they must accept the low wages which the world 
allows to such drudgeries. 

Without property, without education in the arts, they are as yet 
confined to the old-time kind of plantation work. Their labor has 
already restored the cotton product to the stage it had attained 
before the Rebellion, and the price of the staple in its gorged 
markets is already nearly down to the figure it reached when it 
was at the lowest. American cotton sold at seven and three-quar- 
ters pence at Liverpool in 1860. It is now quoted at seven and a 
half pence there, and is steadily declining toward the price it held 
in its worst days, when no wages were paid to the cultivators, and 
the masters made no profit in its cultivation. How long will this 
system continue before the former slaves will be upon as short an 
allowance as ever they were. A diversified industry is the only 
thing that can save them from that bondage of poverty which differs 
only in name from chattel slavery. Our white women and our 
slave men, until lately, were always classified together, in respect 
to their political status. They are now, and must for long, be in 
the same economical category. The law of the industrial life of the 
one, is the law^of the other; and nothing is more astonishing to one 
who sees their equal position in relation to real personal liberty and 
independence, than to find philanthropists arguing and voting for a 
system of international trade that must hold them both alike in 
dependence, and whatever of disability and degradation, they are 
respectively exposed to. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE MOST PROMINENT AND PLAUSIBLE OBJECTIONS TO 
PROTECTION. 

-Protection of national labor unfairly classed among the obsolete restrictions of 
industry and trade. — Protection, the reciprocal of allegiance, embraces the 
interests of labor, and commands its defense. — Countervailing legislation in 
defense of foreign trade unquestionably right, but still more imperatively 
demanded against injuries of domestic commerce. — The natural differences of 
national conditions, enough for all beneficial foreign commerce ; the accidental 
differences are not to be perpetuated. — Production precedes exchange, and 
productive power takes precedence of trade in national policy. — Protection, so 
far from interfering with the individual's choice of occupation or market, aims 
solely at securing their liberty by providing their opportunity. — Liberty without 
its defenses is a mockery. — Free trade, a modified form of rebellion — the spirit 
of insurrection against the law of order. — Not that government which governs 
least, but that which best promotes the public welfare, is best. — Who pays the 
duty? — When non-protective duties are imposed the consumer must pay them. 
Domestic competition in the home market throws a part or the whole of the 
duty upon the foreign producer. — How prices are affected by domestic compe- 
tition.^ — -If a protective duty, in any ease, raises the prices above a given rate, 
it also holds it from ever rising higher — it permanently defends consumers 
against monopoly prices. — If it affords profits undulj' large, domestic com- 
petition immediately reduces them to the ordinary standard, and secures a con- 
stant reduction of prices in keeping with all improvements in production. — No 
rise of prices can go above the point which equalizes the protected industry with 
all others in the community. — To forbid this, is simply to forbid native enter- 
prise to enter upon any industry which foreigners have preoccupied, until 
wages are reduced to the lowest known in the world ; till capital is as cheap, 
because as abundant, and skill, with its education denied, is as great — conclu- 
sions alike preposterous and atrocious. — Nine-tenths of the consumers are also 
producers, and have the largest interests in all the results of protection. — The 
benefits of the policy distributed among all classes, and all are immediately re- 
paid and refunded any temporary increase of prices. — Fallacy of the assumed 
fixity of price upon which the increased cost of a protective duty is calculated. — 
Cost of iron as affected by various rates of duty — of lead — of steel rails. — 
Prices of foreign commodities always fall under protective duties. — -The testi- 
mony of consumers of an important foreign product. — Effect of duties upon 
foreign imports reflected upon competing domestic products : statement of the 
free trade argument by their accepted exponent of the doctrine. — His cypher- 
<ings and their impossible results. — The equally monstrous consequences of the 

221 



222 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

" Revenue" duties which the party proposes and advocates. — Their revenue 
duties shown to cost consumers, on their own principles, an average of ten times 
the amount of revenue which they yield. — The " Revenue Reformers" inextri- 
cably entangled by the reductio ad absuidum of their system. — Following their 
doctrine, the customs from which they are required to raise one hundred and 
fifty, cannot be made to yield more than twenty-five, millions. — The conse- 
quences to the tax payers. — Absurd workings of the assumed principle — the 
larger the domestic production the greater the burden of the revenue duty, and 
the only escape is the abandonment of any industry that any other people 
adopt. — Our taxes now fifteen per cent of our annual products. Must we bear 
this ourselves and give an untaxed market to our foreign rivals ? — Effects of 
protective duties summarized. 

The discussion of the subject now in hand is embarrassed by the 
thousand and one special relations which protection holds to the 
social and industrial interests of the people, and resultingly to the 
financial health of the Government. I have endeavored to pre- 
sent the principle in its nature, its adaptations, and intentions, as it 
interlocks and conflicts with the antagonist theory of trade, for I 
could not advantageously, within the limits of this treatise, give it a 
more formal and systematic array. Following the same plan of treat- 
ment I propose to consider in this chapter the most prominent and 
plausible objections urged by free traders; and, in their appropriate 
places, to discuss the doctrines of free trade, or the foundation upon 
which it is made to rest. 

The free trade logicians overload their argument with an insuf- 
ferable tediousness of instances in which the governments of times 
past interfered with the business aff"airs of their people. They 
enjoy themselves beyond limits on " the limitation of the powers of 
government." They put themselves among the foreground advo- 
cates of civil and political progress, in clamoring for the greatest 
possible extension of the let-alone principle of governmental policy; 
all for the purpose of carrying over to the doctrine of protection 
the odium of the old-time usury laws ; the arbitrary regulation of 
wages and prices ; the grants of monopolies ; the laws in restraint 
of working-men's combinations ; the restraints despotically imposed 
upon the freedom of opinion and publication, with all the other 
abuses of authority which can be pressed into service. These 
oppressive and repressive exercises of the civil power are justly 
under condemnation now, and it is much to the purpose of the 
party of professed progressives to put protection of home industry 
into the class of obsolete usages, which are discredited by the 



OBJECTIONS TO PROTECTION. 223 

spirit of modern progress. It can then be overwlielmed with an 
epithet, and all argument of its special merits is escaped. 

That protection, however, which is the reciprocal of allegiance in 
the philosophy of law, must, nevertheless, be allowed as a duty of 
government, however much the power may have been abused. The 
range of the duty and the mode of exercising the just power conferred, 
must be coextensive with the nation's necessities, especially when 
it is limited, as in the case of regulating international trade, to 
such measures of defense as are required against foreign inter- 
ference, whatever form it may take, with the freedom of the people 
in their choice of the ways and means of self-support, and of em- 
ploying their own labor in the pursuit of wealth. Government is 
bound to adopt countervailing and defensive measures against the 
mischiefs and injuries threatened or inflicted by foreign govern- 
ments or people, by their commercial or maritime action upon 
domestic rights and interests ; and, it may do this by whatever 
means the case requires and warrants. This will not be disputed, 
or at least, needs no further vindication than its mere statement. 

Laissez-faire can scarcely require the sovereign power to let 
its own people alone, and permit all other people to do what 
they please against the national interests. Should a foreign 
government exclude our ships, or our products from its ports, or 
injuriously burden our commerce, is our own legislature to be 
refused the power, or denied the capacity, to protect the national 
interests so oppressed ? Yet such measures would only affect that 
exceedingly small portion of our productive industry which is 
involved in ouv foreign trade; and surely it cannot be admitted that 
there is no corresponding protective and defensive power which 
may be rightfully addressed to the support and safety of that ten- 
fold larger commerce which we have at home, and the thousandfold 
larger interest which belongs to the freedom of domestic labor. 

A foreign people, with larger and cheaper capital ; longer ex- 
perience and its greater skill ; cheaper and more abundant labor, 
and many another decided advantage in a competitive struggle, 
find their interest in making us their customers for their own 
benefit at the expense of our own labor system ; and yet we are 
forbidden by the spirit of progress to employ the self-preservation 
power of nationality in abatement or avoidance of the mischief! 
Free trade in its basis principle allows the individuality of the 



224 QUESTIONS or the day. 

nations, and all tteir economic differences of conditions, but this 
only as a ground for their cosmopolitanism of trade. The more 
unlike the communities of men are, the better they are fitted for 
trade exchanges, and the more permanent these difi"erences can be 
made, and the more the resulting dependency of each upon the 
others can be increased, the better for trade ! Our answer to this is, 
that the natural difi"erences are enough for the commercial relations 
of the various societies of men; but the accidental abnormal, and 
injurious conditions by which they are difi'erenced are not to be 
accepted, but to be amended, for the sake of due progress of all 
the parties. In natural sequence production precedes exchange, 
and the answering principle in logic requires that productive power 
should have precedence of trade interests in the direction of national 
policy. 

From such freedom of international exchange as utterly ignores 
all national distinctions, necessities, and means of economic pro- 
gress, these people carry over a cluster of abstractions to their 
theory of individual freedom. They insist upon " the right of the 
laborer to choose his own occupation ;" that " every man has the 
right to dispose of his own labor, wherever and whenever he thinks 
it most advantageous to himself," and that " every one is better 
able to choose his own industrial pursuit than the government can 
be." Such mere truisms as these no protectionist disputes, nor is 
he otherwise bound to notice, than to expose their impertinence in 
the argument. All such platitudes are answered in a word : 
Protection does not interfere in the choice of men's occupations ; 
with their choice of markets; nor, with any other thing, right, or 
business engagement that anybody ever claimed. So far from this, 
its whole end and aim, and its only possible operation, are to secure 
the opportunity for such freedom of choice — for such freedom in 
industrial production, and such freedom of exchange, as the people 
who adopt it require for the defense and advancement of their 
individual and national prosperity. 

Abstract freedom conceded, with its necessary defenses withheld, 
is a mockery. Letting everybody loose to prey upon everybody 
else, if they can or will, is not liberty, but lawlessness. To expose the 
weak to the strong; to make the markets of the country a melee of 
the nations; is just such a privilege as the rough-shod donkey 
oflfered to the chickens in the barn-yard when he proposed a free 



OBJECTIONS TO PROTECTION. 225 

dance, with its unrestricted liberties to the partners, upon the 
Laissez-faire principle of sauve qui pent. 

Free traders make an utterly unfair use of the maxim, " that 
government is best which governs least." They push it to the 
length of saying that, in trade, no government is best of all. They 
avail themselves of the indignation which the obsolete restrictions 
upon industrial and commercial liberty of the by -gone despotisms 
provoked. They are full of that revolutionary spirit which, to 
resist abuses, runs into the'diametrically opposite error, as the most 
effective rallying cry of resistance. Wise moderation has not that 
full commitment, that squareness of issue joined, that plump oppo- 
siteness, which most strongly enlists and incites parties in warfare. 
This is the spirit of insurrection with its battle-cry of " Liberty 
against the Government." But people must govern themselves 
even in freedom, and they must defend themselves until millennium 
comes, and there is some point at which lawlessness must be checked 
and authority be introduced; and it is best to get rid of the over- 
strained maxims of rebellion when authorized and organized gov- 
ernment is required. Disorderly principles serve very well for 
pulling down Babylon ; but when Jerusalem is to be built and 
established, order, degree, and direction are demanded, and it is 
then time to adopt and respect the doctrine that the principles and 
policy of that government are best which best promote the welfare 
of the people — which best execute themselves by their reasonable- 
ness, practicability, and utility, and are least liable to abuse ; or, 
the most expedient is best. 

The great point which free traders make and most persistently 
press against protective duties is, that, as they are imposed for the 
purpose of equalizing the prices of domestic with foreign products 
in the home market, they must necessarily increase the cost of such 
commodities to the consumer. This is not clear, nor is it in general 
true of the foreign article so charged ; for a part, or the whole, of the 
duty may be thrown upon the foreigner, either in abatement of his 
profits, or in reduction of the wages and price of the raw material, 
or, of all together. This depends entirely upon the competition 
offered in the domestic market. If the foreigner has a monopoly of 
the product, he can charge the whole of the duty upon it to the 
consumer. There is nothing to hinder him. This is obviously true 
in the matter of tropical commodities sold in the United States. 



226 Questions of the day. 

Five cents import duty upon coffee, and twenty-five cents upon tea, 
are nothing else than a domestic tax collected at the custom house. 
Such tax protects nothing native, and nothing native checks its 
charge upon the consumer ; he must pay the whole duty, and the 
importer has possession of our market as free as if no duty at all 
were imposed. The same thing is true of a?/ commodities imported 
which meet no competition, or no effective rivalry in the market 
other than that offered by other foreign traders. 

Suppose the price at which the foreign article can be profitably 
offered, to be fixed, which it is not and cannot be, but, for the pur- 
pose of trying the case, let this point be assumed. Domestic labor 
and capital cannot yield it at that price, but would be enabled to do 
so by charging it, if worth one dollar, with a twenty-five per cent 
duty, and such a charge is accordingly levied. At the beginning of 
the contest, it might seem that, both the domestic and foreign 
article would be raised to that price. But, we now have a condition 
of things in which the foreigner, to hold the market, must reduce 
bis profits, or lose the trade, or much of it, and the home-made can 
well be supplied at one-dollar and twenty-five cents. The results are 
of two kinds, the foreign article cannot go above a dollar and a 
quarter, because it will be driven out by the native. This is a 
great point attained. It is now no longer at the option of the for- 
eigner to raise the price as occasions would otherwise tempt him. 
And if the protective duty has increased the cost to the consumer, 
it holds it down to that point thereafter. 

Protective duties are imposed to encourage home industry. The 
cost of production, during the process of improvement in the business, 
will decline regularly, and may do so very largely — sufficiently to 
afford the article at one dollar, or the supposed remunerative price 
of the foreign commodity at the commencement of the contest for 
the home market. This is not assuming a shade of probability too 
much. And then who pays the duty, if the importer still contends 
for the market ? Plainly he must pay, or lose, the whole of it ; he 
must suffer it in abatement of profit, or in reduction of wages, and 
as long as he does so, the consumer has the product at the former 
price, and the duty goes into the national treasury, as so much tax 
paid by the foreigner for the privilege of our market. These two 
things are then secured : first, the market price is held down to the 
figure at which native production can afford it ; and second, it is 



OBJECTIONS TO PROTECTION. 227 

reduced progressively to tlie extent which native skill and experi- 
ence acquired can eflfect. The maximum cost is fixed for the 
benefit of the consumer, and an assured decline of that maximum is 
certainly provided for. If the dollar and a quarter yields a large 
profit, home competition will immediately pull it down, and never 
cease reducing it until the profit falls to the average of ail other 
investments and enterprises. 

But, at first, the duty does raise the price, or means to raise it, 
above the point at which the foreign article is then sold ; but not 
above that at which it may be held in the absence of all competition. 
G-ranting this, let us see how high such price may go under pro- 
tection. Manifestly no higher than will raise the wages of labor and 
the profits of capital in that to the level of other businesses : which 
means this, and nothing else or more, that wages and profits in such 
a business were previously below the general level. This is the 
limit of the rise, absolutely and permanently fixed. Now, what is 
the objection of the consumer to such equalization ? Will he answer 
that this particular industry, so to be fostered, requires protection 
because it is not so favorably conditioned as others which ask no 
assistance, and ought, therefore, to be abandoned ? Abandoned, till 
when ? Will he answer ? What other reply can he give than " to 
the time when wages shall be as low as in the country of the rival, 
which monopolizes the trade by underpaying its laborers ! or till 
capital shall be as cheap and skill and experience as great !" And 
will he tell us when these things shall be, and how they shall be 
brought about ? Shall wages be driven down with us, by the 
hungry strife for work that has lowered them to the starving point 
abroad ? Can skill be acquired while its education is denied ? And 
will capital be accumulated by the process of limiting its employ- 
ment to the least remunerative investments ? 

A general answer to this general objection is sufiicient. Educa- 
tion must be paid for, and it always repays its cost if it be sound, 
practical and serviceable. 

Who are the consumers that free trade pleads for so impor- 
tunately ? Are not quite nine-tenths of them in the United States 
also producers ? Opening up new avenues of occupation for them 
and enlarging old ones, has the efi'ect first of diminishing competi- ^ 
tion for the sale of labor. It also withdraws from some industries 
a portion of producers and makes them consumers for the re- 



228 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

mainder. It gives and secures for all a home market that can be 
defended against all injurious invasions from abroad. It enlarges 
the diversification of labor, and adapts it to the capabilities of 
(. thousands and even millions of such persons as would otherwise be 
' unproductive, and fall into the supported or dangerous class of the 
community ; and thus, by distributing the benefits of the policy 
upon all classes and conditions of society, it immediately repays all 
the earlier enhancement of prices, and forthwith commences to 
lower them permanently and securely. 

But we have gone too far, in allowing prices to be fixed or re- 
"~- strained by anything else than the force of home competition. It 
is a curious assumption of the free traders that always makes any 
given price of a foreign product the standard or basis from which 
they count the increased cost to the consumer of the duty imposed 
upon it. 

It does seem like a waste of words to expose this fallacy, but an 
instance or two out of hundreds will at least give the facts to be ex- 
plained for the help of those who do not or will not see the princi- 
ple that rules the subject : 

In the year 1844 the duty on English common bar iron was $25 
— • per ton. The price in the New York market (average of the year) 
was $61.83. The cost less the duty, it is assumed, would have 
been $36.83, and the ad valorem duty was, therefore, sixty-eight 
per cent. The price, with the duty ofi", we will call the prime 
cost for the purpose of our, demonstration. The rate of duty was 
twice lowered between 1844 and 1860 : in 1846 it was reduced to 
thirty per cent, and again, in 1857, to twenty-four per cent upon 
the prime cost. 

Now look at the efi'ect of these varied rates upon the price : 

1844, duty $25 00 per ton Prime cost $36 S3 per ton. 

1854 " 16 42 " " 54 70 " 

1858 " 10 04 " " 41 85 " 

1860 " 8 22 " " 34 23 " 

Here we see that in the first stage of diminished rates, when the 
duty fell $8.57, the cost rose $17.87. At the second stage, when 
the duty had fallen $14.96, the price was still $5.02 higher than in 
1844, and when the duty had been reduced $16.78, the cost had 
fallen but $2.60. 

Take another instance : in 1845, under the protective tariff of 



OBJECTIONS TO PROTECTION. 229 

1842, the duty upon pig lead was $3 per hundred pounds ; the 
price in the New York market (average for the year) was $3. 37 J. 
The duty being eight hundred per cent upon the prime cost, or as 
the free traders argue, the lead might have been had for thirty- 
seven and a half cents, duty off. From 1847 to 1857, under an 
ad valorem duty of twenty per cent, the price rose at a pretty even 
pace, beginning in 1847 at 14.31, and ending in 1857, at $7.03^ 
the duty reduced to one-fortieth and the price considerably more 
than doubled ! Who paid the duty in 1844, when the domestic 
production was protected ; and who paid the twenty per cent duty 
in 1857, when the domestic rivalry was driven out of the market? 

One more* instance, because a much more recent one, must be 
added : 

In 1864 the importation of steel rails began in the United 
States. They were sold that year to our railroad companies at 8162 
to $135 per ton, in gold. In 1867 American manufacturers began 
to supply the market, the foreign rails went down to |115 to $110 
per ton. In April 1870 they were lowered to 172, in New York 
and Philadelphia ; now in 1864 the duty being levied in ad valor- 
ems, was equivalent to $46.60, in gold, and was paid by the Ameri- 
can consumer, which would leave to the rail makers one hundred 
and one dollars and ninety cents as the prime cost of the rails; in 
April 1870, the duty, being an ad valorem, fell to $18, and left the 
producers in England but $54 per ton, gold. 

Here American competition reduced the price in our Atlantic 
cities to $4.80 less than one-half it had been at, six years before. 
Such, in these instances, has been the effects of protective duties 
upon prices of foreign products in the domestic market. The rail- 
road companies in great numbers, including the most important of 
them, petitioned Congress in 1870 to raise the duty upon these rails, 
and, to make them certainly protective, asked that they be changed 
to specifics, and fixed at $44.80 per gross ton, for which they gave 
the reason that they " as users of steel rails and transporters of the 
food and material for American manufacturers and their numerous 
employees and skilled laborers, do not desire to be dependent ex- 
clusively upon the foreign supply." They would rather have the 
rails they require at eighty or even a hundred dollars per ton, than 
pay, as they did in 1864, an average of one hundred and forty- 
eight for them. They wish to have the rates held down to such a 



A^ 



230 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

fio-ure as Americans can make them for, and therefore, would have 
the domestic make sustained by a sufficiently protective duty. Do 
they undertsand their business ? And are not all consumers thus 
protected by the policy that home production secures to them from 
the unlimited demands of the foreign monopolists? 

There is nothing which the free traders make so much of, or 
press so urgently upon the inexpert and uninformed of their audi- 
ences, as the reflected effect of protective duties upon the prices of 
the domestic products. Their whole doctrine turns upon prices, and 
they are bound to make the most of them. This party in the 
United States accepts the late special Commissioner of the Revenue 
as the expositor of this point in their appeal to the populace, and 
rely upon his statistical arguments as the most effective of their 
weapons. I quote him only to authenticate my statement of the 
propositions on which they throw their force. In his official report 
to the Secretary of the Treasury dated December, 1869, will be 
found in detail the data and the inferences which I must condense 
in a brief but sufficiently forcible array. He says, in so many words, 
that a reduction in the duty upon foreign salt would be followed by 
a corresponding reduction in the price of the domestic article. In 
a dozen other instances, in other words, he says the same thing. 
He makes a law of prices out of this position, and bases all his 
calculations of the amount of relief the people must obtain in the 
cost of home-made commodities, by any given percentage of reduc- 
tion in the duties imposed upon the competing commodities of 
foreign origin brought to our markets. 

On this ground and for this purpose he proposes the remission of 
$750,000 in the duties collected from foreign pig-iron in the fiscal 
year 1867-8, and says that such a reduction would relieve the 
consumers of domestic pig iron of no less than 810,800,000, thus 
- Teducing the cost of the total foreign and domestic consumption by 
fifteen and four-tenths times the amount of the duty if retained. A 
reduction of 8600,000 upon the duties charged upon foreign salt, 
he says, "would relieve the community of a tax, in the first instance, 
of 13,900,000 per annum ; " a reduction of $3,500,000 upon the 
duties charged on hides, leather, all the manufactures of leather, 
tanning barks. Listings and serge, would have the effect of " re- 
lieving the people from a burden of taxation, as already demon- 
strated, approximating the sum of 818,000,000;" and 81,262,020 



OBJECTIONS TO PROTECTION. 231 

of duties upon imported timber and lumber, in all forms, wliolly 
remitted, would, by tbe same principles of calculation, reduce the 
cost of all such articles produced at home for consumption no less 
than §16,000,000. In the aggregate of these four classes of goods 
alone, the import duties upon similar products are made, by the 
commissioner's logic and computation, to enhance the cost of the 
domestic product $48,700,000, while their foreign correspondents 
yield only $6,112,000 of revenue. 

This doctrine applies to all other duty-paying imports, and to 
the reflected effect upon the prices of the domestic commodities 
which divide the home market with them. Let us try it through 
the entire range of its supposed operation : 

The official value of all such foreign goods, so charged with im- 
port duties, which met the competition of American goods in the 
year 1867-8, was $178,000,000 ; the aggregate duties amounted to 
$85,400,000 — an average of a small fraction less than iorty-eight 
per cent. We have no authoritative estimate of the value of such 
goods manufactured in the United States in that year, but we can 
guess. The increase of the year 1860 upon 1850 was eighty-five 
per cent; the product of 1860 was $1,885,000,000; eighty-five per 
cent will be little enough under all the circumstances to add to the 
value of 1860 for that of 1868. This gives us 3,487 millions as 
the value of the products of the year. On which sum, according to 
this theory, a forty-eight per cent increase of cost to the consumers 
must have fallen, and therefore the duties charged upon the foreign 
import surcharged the prices of their domestic rivals the total 
sum of $1,673,760,000, or nine- and a half times the amount of the 
duties secured to the treasury by the system of raising revenue at 
the custom houses ! 

This is frightful, atrocious, horrible, and — ridiculous. But it is 
agony and oratory for the stump, and a " big thing" in statistics 
for the tongues and pens of the Innocents whose philosophy is 
bounded by the multiplication table. 

But do the experts among the propagandists of free trade them- 
selves believe it ? 

This same Commissioner, in full possession of his economic logic 
and unmeasurable arithmetic, in this same report, proposes to put 
an aggregate duty of $38,000,000 upon imported sugar, molasses, 
and melado. This is just fifty-two and one half per cent upon their 



232 QUESTIONS or the day. 

invoice value in the year 1867-8, which being reflected upon 
$23,750,000 worth usually produced at home, must enhance their 
market price a fraction over 812,000,000. Add to this the duty 
itself and we have a round 850,000,000 put upon the cost of these 
sweets to the consumers. This is enormous taxation indeed ; for by 
the rule of the Commissioner, if the duties were wholly remitted 
we might have had the entirety of our supply, foreign and domestic, 
for 883,600,000, but under its malign operation, they must neces- 
sarily cost us just 850,000,000 more, that is thirty-eight millions in 
duties upon the foreign, and twelve in enhanced price upon the 
d&mestic. 

He treats woolens and worsteds and cotton goods in the same 
way. Taking his own data for the calculation he proposes to raise 
830,000.000 upon cottons, woolens, iron, steel and lead, at an ex- 
pense of 89-1,500,000 of increased cost to the consumers of these 
foreign and domestic goods. But his schedules provide for a revenue 
of 8150,000,000 a year from imports. Without an unnecessarily 
tedious calculation, I cannot give the precise figures for the total 
tax that his proposal would inflict upon the consumers, but a safe 
average would put it at ten times as much. We confront the 
Revenue Reformers with this result of their financial system. Some 
of them having felt the force of this reductio ad absurdum, bluntly 
propose to set every foreign article free of import duty which meets 
in our markets any quantity of the like kind of domestic production. 
The doctrine which they all profess, and the arguments they all use, 
drive them, whether or no, into this trap. They are compelled to 
be absolute free traders in respect to all goods, wares and merchan- 
dise which compete with our own products, but merciless in the 
burdens that they must throw upon all commodities which our own 
soil and labor cannot produce. To see how this principle would 
work upon the federal revenue, we need but look at the several 
classes of our usual imports, their respective values, and yield of 
duties. Taking Mr. Wells' schedules, which will be found on the 
one-hundred and twenty-eighth page of his report, I see not how 
more than twenty-five millions of the hundred and fifty of revenue 
which he expects, can possibly be derived from imports which do 
not compete with our domestic supplies. And it follows, if this 
doctrine of reflected prices is true, or if its advocates believe it to 
be true, that they are bound to release our total importation from all 



OBJECTIONS TO PROTECTION. 233 

but about twenty-five millions of taxes, and throw something like 
two-hundred and twenty-millions of the necessary revenue of the 
government upon domestic property and industry. They must do 
this, and they must abandon their duties for revenue, or, they are 
bound in reason and conscience, to withdraw their assaults upon 
protective duties as a cause of a tenfold cost forced upon home-made ~. 
goods. 

One curious effect of the doctrine which we have been pressing 
to its consequences is, that the more productive our industries may 
be, the worse is the effect of any duty laid upon the rival products 
of foreign origin. For instance, if we import ten millions worth of 
a class of goods under a twenty-five per cent duty, and manufacture 
a hundred millions worth of the same kind, the consumers must 
bear twenty-five millions of increased price upon the domestic - 
goods ; but if we import a hundred millions and manufacture only 
ten, the consumers of the domestic article suffer only to the extent 
of two and a half millions ; which is followed by this unavoidable 
consequence — it is ruinously oppressive to the consumers, to tax 
any article of foreign make which we can make at home ; which 
must have the further consequence of a surrender of our markets to 
anything and everything that anybody abroad may choose to send 
us, unless we can undersell them, with the whole burden of our 
national debt, and federal, state, and municipal taxes for a make- 
weight in their favor. Our taxes are now not less than fifteen per 
cent of our annual products; must we bear these ourselves, abandon 
the industries which foreigners may choose to monopolize, and give 
a free market to everybody except ourselves ? The doctrine of duties 
reflected upon home prices requires this. What is the answer of 
common sense ? 

When considering the effect of home competition upon the prices 
of foreign imports, the facts presented seemed entirely sufficient to 
explode the notion we have now been confronting with its pre- 
posterous, absurd, and every way monstrous results. 

It would be as tedious as unnecessary to give the instances, either N 
in particulars or summaries, which prove that protective duties, 
levied in the strictness of the principle, always secure the con- 
sumers from arbitrary prices ; always in good time reduce prices to 
the level of general rewards of labor and capital; always throw their 
burden upon the foreign producer, when judiciously adjusted to the 
16 



234 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

conditions and capabilities of the people; often, indeed, even going 
further and trenching upon the usual profits of the producer, and 
always repaying an hundredfold, any nominal increase of prices, by 
putting every variety of capability to profitable employment; and 
increasing the wages and profits as much to the consumers, who 
are all immediately or indirectly interested in the general benefits 
secured- 

A very brief notice of the experience of other nations, which we 
promised at the outset of our treatment of the complex questions 
involved, will sustain all that is here claimed for the policy of 
protective duties directed to the support and development of that 
labor on which all wealth depends. 



I 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PROTECTION IN THE HISTORIC NATIONS. 

Protection in England — her struggle for supremacy in industry and trade ; her 
rise from the lowest to the highest rank in Europe. — Measures taken to make 
her " the workshop of the world." — How she built up her woolen manufactures 
by five centuries of protective duties — prohibitions, bonuses, and penalties — and 
her iron industry by similar means during a period of over one hundred and 
twenty years. — In wool, iron, and coal she possessed natural advantages, and 
free traders credit her success in these industries to this cause ; but by pro- 
tection she naturalized her cotton manufactures, and enlarged them till their 
products outmeasure the value of all her other exports. — Beginning the business 
in 174.0 by prohibiting the oriental fabrics which sold at three times less price 
than the domestic product, and maintaining the defense of the home industry 
until all successful competition was impossible. — In 1846 free trade was pro- 
claimed by statute, but England never remitted or abated a protective duty till 
her own supremacy defied all rivalry in her home markets. — By countervailing 
duties she still defends her burdened industries, and her present policy is just as 
protective as her interests require. — The new Empire of Germany owes its ex- 
istence and its eminence to the protection measures of the Zollverein. — History 
of protection in Belgium. — The natural resources of the Kingdom, the policy of 
trade employed, and the provision made for the prosperity other manufactures, 
agriculture, and commerce. — Her population the densest in the world, and its 
growth double that of Great Britain, and her emigrants nineteen times less. — 
Protection in France maintained the most wasteful of governments, educated 
the artisans which initiated the skilled industries of all Europe, and has sus- 
tained her finances through the revolutions of a century. — The protective and 
prohibitive policy of Russia has raised the kingdom from barbarism to the 
rank of a first-rate power in Europe, and emancipated twenty millions of serfs. 
The opponents challenged to find in all history a nation that has risen to the 
front rank, or any one that has maintained a high position, except such as 
have steadily maintained a protective policy adapted to their national conditions 
and international relations. — Free trade in the history of nations — Turkey. — 
Free trade proclaimed by the Sultan three centuries ago. — Then Turkish supe- 
riority defied competition in production.— Modern agencies have so cheapened 
products, that Turkey, unable to command them, has lost not only her foreign 
markets but is compelled to surrender her home commerce to foreigners. — The 
"sick man's" complaint explained. — His dissolution waiting only for agreement 
among the dissectors. — Helpless herself, and no help from her free trade pro- 
tector. — How her trade has declined. — How she supplies her exchequer, and 

235 



236 QUESTIONS or the day. 

debases her current coin. — Ireland, effects of the Act of Union ; driven by its 
free trade provisions from the workshop to the potato field ; famine, pestilence 
and emigration the consequences, and England hopeful of the extinction of the 
nation. — India, another victim of English free trade; half a million starved in 
a few months in the granary of the world — multitudes, who formerly produced 
the finest cotton tissues, driven from skilled industries to the lowest drudgery of 
agriculture, and famines increased in frequency and extent for more than half 
a century under British rule. — Portugal under a free trade treaty^ with England 
precipitated from her pride of place among the nations to the condition of a 
burden upon the hands that ruined her. Differences of race, religion, and 
geographic position will not explain the fortunes and misfortunes of the nations 
here reviewed. — Only by one rule can they be classified — the one class having 
all protected their domestic industries ; the other, surrendered them to the 
domination of foreigners. 

We open this section of our argument upon the vantage ground 
of the wide world's experience. The testimony of all history 
proves this broad proposition : not a single nation on the earth has 
attained a leading position ; not a nation in the past or present has 
maintained the rank that entitles it to be called a " power/' except 
those who have firmly maintained an adapted policy of protection 
in the direction of their international relations. England, being 
one of the very best of the examples in proof, is entitled to our 
first consideration. 

Every one who knows anything of her history, knows that through 
a long struggle she raised her commerce and manufactures from the 
lowest to the very highest rank among the nations, not of Europe 
only, but of the world. Her chances for attaining and maintaining 
supremacy in production and trade in an even-handed struggle, 
under a let-alone policy, were simply hopeless. Great Britain oc- 
cupies a territory not more than one-fourteenth of the extent, and 
has, even now, a population equal to only one-eighth of the natural 
labor force of her European rivals — Russia, in Europe, being excluded 
from the computation. The one-half of these peoples were far in 
advance of her at the beginning of the strife. Such were the odds 
against her, and such the proved capabilities of her opponents. 
How did she address herself to the great work of self development, 
and achieve her grand success ? By following the policy which 
she now urges upon the nations still in the conditions from which 
she herself has risen, and in her progress passing through such a 
series of stages as represent all the varied conditions of her con- 
temporaries in the present? Did she entertain such hallucinations 



PROTECTION IN NATIONAL HISTORY. 237 

as we get now from free trade theorists, poets, transcendentalists, 
factors, brokers, and smugglers ? Did she aim at universal mastery 
through cosmopolitanism in trade ? On the contrary, she went 
resolutely to work under such a system of protective measures as "* 
challenges comparison, and by them achieved her grand successes. 
These measures may be arrayed under the following heads : pro- 
hibition of competing imports; prohibition of the export of raw S 
materials ; bounties upon production and exportation ; restraints 
upon colonial manufactures; differential duties in favor of her own 
commerce ; sumptuary laws encouraging such kinds of production 
as seemed to need help in that form ; active and substantial aid to 
the immigration of artisans from the continent ; prohibition of the 
immigration of her own skilled workmen, and of the export of 
machinery; wars undertaken with the sole object of opening up 
and monopolizing foreign markets, and, every other species of regu- 
lations and interferences which promised in any way to make her 
"the workshop of the world." All this is known in a general way. \ 
The particulars would astonish any one to whom they are unfa- 
miliar. From the year 1331 down to 1834 the woolen manufac- - 
tures were steadily protected ; beginning with fines, maimings, im- 
prisonment, and death as the penalties for exporting native wool or \ _^ 
importing foreign cloth, and maintaining such penalties in force for ' 
quite four centuries. In 1746 these were softened down to trans- -^ 
portation for seven years. [See Blackstone's Commentaries, title, 
Owling.] The latest of these penalties was not repealed till 1825. -v 
Here we have an "■ infant manufacture," nursed through a period of 
five hundred years, coming to a confident maturity which now , 
mocks at a rival in its cradle which has never yet had ten consecu-;;^ 
tive years of fostering care ! 

Iron imported in foreign vessels was charged, as early as the year 
1710, with a duty of £2, 10s. per ton, which was raised at suc- 
cessive periods, till in 1819 it stood at £6, 10s. in English, and £7, 
18s. 6c?. in foreign vessels. This was adequate as well as earnest 
protection of the domestic manufacture, for as early as seven years 
after the last-mentioned date England was actually producing her 
own iron at £3, 13s. cheaper than the cheapest of her competitors 
in all Europe. Being thus secure against all rivalry in the home 
market the duty was reduced in 1834 to £1 per ton. 

England's command of the finest wool at an early day, and her 



(^h^rt.^ 



238 QUESTIONS or the day. 

possession of iron ore and mineral coal, have been oflfered as the 
sufficient cause of her great proficiency in their manufacture. 
These were her natural advantages, and the justification of her 
great endeavor to improve them. We have shown the means em- 
ployed to secure success. That the mere possession of the raw 
material is not the whole explanation is shown by a still greater 
triumph in another department of her established supremacy : 
/ England grows not a pound of cotton, yet in ISGO the real value 
' of her exports of cotton goods amounted to fifty-two millions of 
1 pounds sterling, while those of iron, steel, wool, machinery, and 
silk amounted to no more in the aggregate than forty-one millions. 
Here then, we have a case in which nature did nothing for 

J England, but in which she managed to naturalize an utterly foreign 
manufacture, so as to make its products exceed the half of her 
total manufactures and products exported to foreign countries. Her 
earliest supply of the material was from Cyprus and Smyrna, after- 
wards from India and China. Until 1790 America had sent her 
none. When she commenced the manufacture of cottons, say 
about the y5ar 1740, the East India article could be afi"orded at less 
than one-third of the price of the domestic, and, had its importation 
been permitted, the British manufacture could not have fought its 
way into the home market. But notwithstanding the inequality of 
the contending parties, in the natural order of things, the exotic 
character of the raw material, the freight upon the import, which 
was then enormously high, and the unparalleled perfection of the for- 
eign art, the people found a way of meeting the exigency. It was 
done by an act of Parliament, which reads thus: '^ Calicoes, painted, 

— '.stained, or dyed in Persia, China, or the East Indies, shall not be 
'■worn or used in this kingdomj" and further, "all such goods, 
whether mixed, sewed, or made up together for sale with any 
other goods, shall be forfeited; and the person in whose custody, 
knowing thereof, the same shall be found, or that shall dispose 
thereof, shall forfeit £200." The British tariff act, passed in 1819, 
— still prohibited the manufactures of all countries east of the Cape 
of Grood Hope, and charged those of Europe fifty to sixty-seven per 
cent. 

About the year 1818, the application of steam power, and the 
employment of the machinery which has so immensely increased and 
cheapened production, was fairly established in England. For full 



I 
PROTECTION IN NATIONAL HISTORY. 239 

twenty years afterwards slie maintaiued her protective system, and 
then, when it was rendered unnecessary by the superiority which it 
had produced, it was abandoned, and the English authorities began 
to propagate those doctriaes of free trade which her matured indus- 
tries could well bear. In 1846, the new policy suited to the new 
aspect of the nation's business was installed in the statutes of the 
British Parliament*; that is, all that is intended and actual in the 
policy became the public law of the land ; but the operative pro- 
visions amount to nothing more than the opening of the British 
ports and markets freely to all commerce which her own supremacy 
in production EXCLUDES ! As we have already shown, the existing 
system of countervailing duties is still preserved to protect such of 
her manufacturing interests as require them; and we are justified 
by the facts in saying that, her whole system of commercial regula- 
tions have been for five centuries, and remain to this day, the most 
complete, adequate, and successful instance of the employment of 
the protective policy that can be found in history. With one other 
word we conclude this brief review — England never once, and 
never in any instance, repealed, or remitted, or abated a protective 
duty on any foreign goods until after, and generally long after, it 
had accomplished all its objects, and left her safe from ail compe- 
tition. 

PROTECTION IN OTHER COUNTRIES OP EUROPE. 

For the wonderful results that have crowned the policy in the 
German States now included in the customs union of Prussia, com- 
monly called the Zollverein, we must content ourselves with what we 
have said in our strictures upon the system of ad valorem duties, in 
a preceding chapter, and elsewhere when the history of the German 
industrial system and its achievements were in point. 

Our whole case might be safely rested upon the facts of the 
industrial and commercial history of the little kingdom of Belgium 
alone. In territory she is only a trifle larger than the State of 
Maryland,*and has not quite one-fourth of the area of New York or 
Pennsylvania. In these limits she has a population of four millions 
nine hundred thousand, which gives four hundred and thirty-three^ 
to the square mile, which is full twenty-five per cent more dense 
than that of England and Wales, and nearly thrice the density of 
Massachusetts. The productive industry required to support such 



240 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

• 

a population is presumptively very great. She is well supplied 
with raw material, and obviously is not stinted in labor power. 
The success of the Belgians in the manufacture of silk, glass, 
linen, and woolens, has given them a world wide reputation; and 
her carpets and laces are known as the finest in foreign markets, 
and are found there in amazing abundance. Small as the territory 
( is, it combines in a remarkable degree, and in remarkable balance, 
) capabilities for agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial in- 
I dustry. Her customs sj'stem shows how wisely she has guarded all 
*hese interests. She secures a home market for her raw materials 
by defending her manufactures adequately. She finds a home 
market for her breadstufis and provisions by employing all her 
hands busily in every form of converting industry; she fosters her 
skilled industries by barring out all competition with their pro- 
ducts; she favors a very large transit trade by ofiering every induce- 
ment to the bordering nations, and to foreigners trading with them, 
making her roads a general thoroughfare ; her lands are cultivated 
like garden grounds ; her factories are alive with industry, and are 
carrying away the iron trade of northern and eastern Europe from 
England; her foreign commerce grew, after it was liberated from 
the dominion of Holland and Spain by the French in 1830, till it 
stood, in 18(30, at double the proportion of the United States; and 
Belgium is now about ready for free trade : she has put herself, 
through wise and persistent protection, into the list of the nations 
.that no longer need any defenses against her industrial and commer- 
cial rivals. 

I must not detain the reader with a statement of the tariff" rates 
which have secured all these results. A specimen or two will give 
the spirit of the whole. Raw tobacco is admitted at nine-tenths of 
one cent per pound — the manufactured is charged three cents ; raw 
sugar at two cents per ton — the manufactured or refined must 
carry $185.68 per ton; raw wool, free — woolen manufactures, 
charged ten, twelve, twenty-one, twenty-six, and thirty-two cents 
per pound. There is not an item in all the schedules of the 
Belgian tariiF that gives any more countenance to free trade or 
any of its maxims than those which are here quoted. 

The diifereutial duties charged upon imports m foreign vessels, 
in favor of her own, are, in the average, quite one hundred per cent, 
which have had the effect of preserving for her own mercantile 



PROTECTION IN NATIONAL HISTORY. 241 

navy her whole trade in domestic exports and foreign imports for 
consumption. 

It is worth noting here that Belgium increased her population 
sixteen per cent between the years 1840 and 1850, while the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain grew but a scant eight per 
cent in the same time. Protection against free trade in the matter 
of population, with all the odds of density against Belgium under 
the trial. 

Again : the immigrants to the United States during the period 
of 1840-60 from Belgium were equal to only two-tenths of one 
per cent of her population in 1860; while those from the United 
Kingdom amounted to three and eight-tenths per cent of hers; so, 
the chance of living at home was just nineteen times better in pro- 
tective Belgium than in free trade England. 

For the growth of wealth in France we beg leave to refer the 
reader to our fifth chapter, where its rate and amount in the first 
half of the present century are given in sufficient detail to exhibit 
the efi"ect of her system of international commerce, which J. B. Say 
thus correctly describes, " for thirty years nearly every law passed 
on custom house matters has been intended either to establish or to 
consolidate the system of protection and prohibition." Writing 
in 1826, this high authority among free traders, says, '< France at^ 
present contains the most beautiful manufactures of silk and wool in 
the world, and is probably indebted for them to the wise encourage- 
ment of Colbert's administration. He advanced to the manufactures 
two thousand francs for every loom at work, and, by the way, this 
species of encouragement has a particular advantage — the bounty 
enters into reproduction." It will be recollected that Colbert was 
Intendant of Finance and Minister of State under Louis XIV. His 
policy supported the most expensive and wasteful of French 
monarchs in the seventeenth century; and it did more, it educated 
more than half a million of those artisans who in 1685, upon the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, fled from France, and settling 
in Switzerland, Germany, Holland and England, created there the 
industries which enriched the countries of their adoption. 

The prosperity of manufactures in France is too well known to 
require any description here ; the results concerning the national 
welfare are unhappily too much confused by the political despotisms 
and popular revolutions which make up the history of the nation for 



242 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

now above three-quarters of a century, to allow of any very clear 
examination within our limits. But this much must be admitted — 
under the most absolutely restrictive system, maintained from the 
earliest days of the first Bonaparte to the fall of the third, France 
has advanced greatly in natural and individual wealth, and has 
grown through the whole career of her crazy political disturbances 
to be the leading manufacturing nation of Europe. Her terrible 
history would have been passed unnoticed but for the fact that her 
industrial system has revived her fortunes after every revolution, 
and kept her public credit quite as high as that of any other Euro- 
pean State except that of England. The French three per cents 
were up to seventy on the hundred immediately before the outbreak 
of the late War with Prussia, when our own sixes were not above 
ninety, and our fives were but eighty-sis. In nothing has she had 
either wise or stable government except in the defense of her 
industries, and this has kept her from utter destruction, and will 
restore her again when the present riot is quelled. 

The Russian policy, like that of France, has long been sternly and 
guardedly defensive of the labor of the Empire against the invasion 
of products from Western Europe. Under this system, it is enough 
to say, she has emancipated twenty millions of her serfs, and has 
risen, within the memory of living men, from barbarism and con- 
•tempt to the rank of a " power" which has no equal in the Eastern 
hemisphere except the new empire of Germany. 

A volume would be required for a full array of the evidence 
which could be adduced in proof of the proposition advanced at the 
beginning of this section — that, not a nation on the earth has 
attained a leading position except those who have firmly maintained 
a policy of protection adapted to their national conditions and inter- 
national relations. Will the disputants try to find one ? 

FREE TRADE IN THE HISTORIC NATIONS. 

Free trade has had a fair trial in the old world. Its history is 
indelibly recorded in its results. We propose now to show from 
free-trade authorities the efi"ects of their favorite policy in those 
countries of Europe and Asia in which it has had its most complete 
demonstration. 
^. Three centuries ago, the Sultan of Turkey proclaimed unlimited 



PROTECTION IN NATIONAL HISTORY. 243 

freedom of foreign trade, retaining a bare five per cent duty or 
port charge upon imports, ■which it seems has long since been 
reduced to three per cent. Turkish superiority of skill and expe- 
rience was more than a match for the rude industries of western 
Europe in the old-time manufacturing methods and agencies; but 
upon the introduction of the modern improvements, which almost 
miraculously multiply commodities by means of steam and ma- 
chinery, the oriental races were exposed to a destructive competi- 
tion in all their markets, foreign and domestic, and Turkey fell from 
its preeminence, and became the '' sick man " of the nations. The 
countries which have availed themselves of the modern appliances 
in production, and protected their labor interests from foreign 
invasion, have nothing to do now but divide the apocalyptic dragon's 
dominions among themselves when they can agree upon the distri- 
bution. Free-trade England will make no resistance ; her occupa- 
tion of the protectorate, like Othello's, is gone, and she will get 
none of the spoils, nor even save her plighted honor. 

Even so lately as fifty years ago we were wearing Turkish goods 
in the backwoods of America, but now the subjects of the Sulian 
cannot hold their own markets against foreigners. J. E,. McCulloch 
says : " The Turkish manufacturers of muslins, ginghams, handker- 
chiefs, etc., have sufi"ered severely from the extraordinary importa- 
tion of British goods, so much so, that of six hundred looms for 
muslins in Scutari, in 1812, only forty remained in 1831 ; and of 
two thousand weaving establishments in Tournovo, in 1812, there 
were only two hundred in 1831." Again, he says : " Though our 
[British] muslins and chintzes be inferior in fineness to those of the 
East, and our red dye (a color in great esteem in Turkey, Persia, 
etc.,) be inferior in brilliancy, these defects are more than balanced 
by the greater cheapness of our goods; and from Smyrna to Canton, 
from Madras to Samarcand, we are everywhere supplanting the 
native fabrics." Of Turkey's foreign trade he says, "the exports 
are very trifling — ships carrying goods to Constantinople either 
return in ballast or get return cargoes at Smyrna, Odessa, etc.;" and 
of the interior traffic he says: " the trade is in the hands of Jew 
brokers, some of whom are rich." Duties upon imports, three per cent, 
and twelve per cent upon domestic exports, explain the condition of 
the revenue, and its pinching necessities ; but the stronger proof is 
in the desperate resort to a rapid debasement of the government 



244 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

coinage. For this again we have McCulloch's authority — '' The 
Turkish coin has been much degraded. The piastre, which a few 
years ago was worth two shillings sterling, is now (in 1838) worth 
little more than four pence." The Turk's sickness is explained. 
He has caught the Irish disease, imported in manufactured goods 
from Liverpool. 

Ireland was, not very long ago, as it had been for ages, the seat 
of learning and of the useful arts, in an eminent degree. In the 
last quarter of the last century, the books printed in Dublin, and 
the woolens, linens, and cottons, of the Irish looms, were common 
in all the markets of Christendom; but the union with Great 
Britain was effected in 1801, and in 1821 the last traces of national 
defense against the overpowering competition of the kingdom that 
had swallowed her up were effaced. By the terms of the union her 
/ almost prohibitory duties upon English calicoes and muslins were to 
expire in 1808, and those upon woolens in 1821. Look at the 
results : in 1800 there were in Dublin five thousand hands employed 
in woolen manufactures; in 1840, only six hundred and two. In 
making carpets, seven hundred hands at work in 1800; in 1840^ 
none. These are the average proportions of the respective dates for 
the silk-weavers, calico-weavers, and cotton-spinners. England 
wanted cheap labor and • cheap food, and free trade with Ireland 
answered the intention. But how did they answer Ireland ? Thrown 
out of mechanical employment, the Irish laborer was driven to 
spade-husbandry and potato-raising, until the potatoes sickened 
under the forcing system which necessity compelled, and the soil 
got sick of the spade-men; and famine, pestilence, and emigration, 
(juartered the population between the years 1841 and 18511 The 
London Times rather likes this situation of things ; it says, " The 
tribe of Celts will soon fulfill the great law of Providence, which 
seems to enjoin and reward the union of races. It will mix with 
the Anglo-Americans, and be ktioicn no more as a jealous and sepa- 
rate people. Its present place will be occupied by the more mixed, 
more docile, and more serviceable race which has long borne the 
yoke of sturdy industry in this island, uliich can submit to a master 
and obey the law.'' The same paper at another time, said: "For a 
whole generation man has been a drug in Ireland, and population a 
nuisance," Mark the date — a whole generation, that is, since the 
free trade provisions of the Act of Union came fully into play. And 



PROTECTION IN NATIONAL HISTORY. 245 

mark the avowed intention : Irish extinction to be accomplislied by 
starvation and expatriation. 

George Thompson, in a speech delivered in the House of Com- 
mons fifteen years ago, describing the results of British rule in 
India, said : "At the close of the last century, cotton abounded, 
and to so great an extent was the labor of men, women, and chil- 
dren applied to its conversion into cloth, that even with their im- 
perfect machinery they not only supported the home demand for 
the beautiful tissues of Dacca, and the coarser products of Western 

India, but they exported to other parts of the world no less than 

two hundred millions of pieces per annum." 

In 1813 the trade of India was thrown open and the native 
industries were exposed to unlimited competition. At the end of 
twenty years after, the men, women, and children had been driven 
from the workshops to the fields, and all demand for labor was at 
an end except in raising rice, cotton, indigo, and opium. Mr. 
Thompson's picture of India under free-trade rule has such free 
dashes of the pencil as these : " Some of the finest tracts of land 
have been forsaken and given up to the untamed beasts of the jungle. 
The motives to industry have been destroyed. Go with me to the 
northwest provinces of the Bengal Presidency and I will show you 
the bleaching skeletons of five hundred thousand human beings 
who perished from hunger in the space of a few short months ; 
yes, and of hunger in what has been called the granary of the 
world. Famines have continued to increase in frequency and ex- 
tent under our sway for more than half a century." 

Portugal is another witness to the character and influence of the\ 
policy urged upon us by the people aspiring to the mastery of com- \ 
merce and the monopoly of all the skilled industries of the wide • 
world. In 170.3, Portugal, so lately the leading commercial nation of 
Europe, concluded a treaty with England, by which she bound her- ^^^ 
self to admit English wares into her ports at a fifteen per cent duty, 
for the favor of an English tax upon her wines one-third less than 
that imposed upon the wines of France. Mr. McCuUoch reports 
the inevitable results thus: "Formerly Lisbon had about four hun- 
dred ships of from five to six hundred tons burthen employed in the \^ 
trade with South America, but at present there are not above fifty 
ships engaged in foreign trade, and of these the burthen does not 
exceed 150 tons. The produce of Portugal sent to foreign coun- 



246 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

tries is almost entirely coaveyed in foreign ships." Mr. Cobden, 
y- another free trade oracle, summed up the whole story, about fifteen 
years ago, when he said that " Turkey and Portugal had become a 
burden and a curse to England." She had made them her depend- 
encies, not by force of arms, but by force of trade, and now they 
were upon her hands like the worn-out slaves of a Southern planta- 
tion under the old regime. 

The ready answer to this indictment of the policy, and of the 
nation which has employed it in the destruction of so many other 
nations, is that the Turks are Mahometans, the Indians are Pagans, 
the Irish are Celts, and the Portuguese are, if nothing else. Catho- 
lics; but the French are at once Celts, Catholics, and infidels ; the 
Russians are not Catholics ) the Belgians are almost exclusively 
Catholic, and the Germans are both Catholics and Protestants. 
Differences of faith and of race, differences of national conditions 
and habits, will not serve for the causes of the different economic 
fortunes of all these peoples. The fortunate among them are not 
distinguished from the unfortunates by any likeness among them- 
selves of national character, or of geographic conditions. The 
victims are, like those of the small pox, of every variety of consti- 
tution, undefended or unprotected by vaccination. 

And how does it happen that peoples unchanged in faith, or 
place, or character, who were once first in the ranks of industry 
and commerce, are now last and lowest? and how does it happen, 
also, that each and all of them are in the one category of peoples who 
have lost the command of their home markets by surrendering 
them to the control of cheaper producers ? 

/" There is nothing clearer or truer in human reasoning than that 
labor is the source of wealth, and that its freedom and diversifica- 
tion are the measure of its productiveness ; and an infraction of this 
law of national life, must be followed by its natural and necessary 
penalties. The suggestion of faith or race or any other specialty in 
explanation of results, is utterly unphilosophical, and foolishly im- 
pertinent^ Universal history testifies that not a single nation on the 
globe, in the whole range of history, has reached independence and 
wealth ; not a nation even holds the rank attained, but such as have 
firmly maintained a protective policy in the regulation of their inter- 
national trade. 



CHAPTEK XVIII. 

GUARANTYISM. 

GiTARANTYiSM : Civilization, not differentially defined. — The present age a tran- 
sition phase of society requiring a distinctive name. — Precedent conditions of 
civilization. — Societary movements, their characteristics — Patriarchism, Barbar- 
ism, Greek Democracies; growth in bondage; Feudalism, uprising of the masses 
— rights demanded, not duties conceded, in the revolt. — Support of the poor and 
education by the State, questioned. — Natural rights grounded in selfhood. — 
Reign of individualism relaxing; at war with association. — Rights and duties 
reconciled in guarantyism, corresponding movements in religion, in civil cov- 
ernment, and the military system. — Achievements in arts and sciences, not the 
distinction of the last hundred years. — Societary reformation, the glory of the 
present age — in politics — in organized diflfusion of Christian knowledge by 
protestants — temperance reform — anti-slavery — public schools — statistics of 
education — public libraries, periodicals. — Charities. — Diminution of capital 
crimes; corporal punishments; imprisonment for debts. — Insurances; history 
of; recent increase of. — Savings Banks in England; happy influences; in the 
United States; vast aggregate of deposits; statistics; indicate the associative 
impulse. — ,Oorpoi-ations the type of cooperative unions ; material and spiritual 
springs of cooperative association. — Cooperation in bondage — in freedom. — 
Labor's difficulties. — Selfhood becomes social — the gain leads to the good of the 
principle. — Beneficial Societies, vast accumulation of the fund in England. — 
No reports of beneficial societies in the United States. — Provisions and manage- 
ment — easy rates and liberal reliefs — moral influence. — They grow rich. 

Civilization has no logical or distinctive definition. Writers, 
concerned with it as their special subject, have not even attempted 
to determine what it is, and what it is not. It is vaguely recognized as 
a phase of human society, and it is ranked as the last and highest form 
yet developed ; bat it is not differenced by any of its exactest descrip- 
tions. There is moreover, a lack of philosophic accuracy in treating 
it as a phase, or a different form, or appearance, of the same sub- 
stantial thing. It is not a thing defined, nor can it be held within 
the fixed limits of either description or apprehension. It is a thing 
of progress, of degrees, and, therefore, a complex of phenomena. 
We all know what we mean by it in special applications, but these 
are so numerous, and so various, that our conceptions or notions of it 

247 



248 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

do not serve iu scientific classificatioa. Treated or taken as a particular 
form of societary organization, the idea of some constancy and 
fixity of character intrudes, which is an error of essence, for its 
essence is changeful progressiveness ; and its changes are so great 
in degree, that they take on real changes in kind. If the Jews, 
Greeks, and Romans, were all civilized peoples at the commence- 
ment of the Christian era, what shall we say of the Chinese now; 
and what of Western Europe any time in the last five centuries ; 
and, especially, in the year 1870 ? If the Moors were barbaric 
when they held the dominion of Southern Spain, how were the 
Greeks civilized under Alexander the Great ? One descriptive 
name for all these is not more exact or discriminative than calling 
the North American Indians and the Negroes of Central Africa, both 
alike, savages. We have not, because we cannot have, logical 
definitions of these phases of human society. The races and 
nationalities are not in any of their conditions, diiferenced as insects, 
fishes, birds, and beasts are in zoological characters. Yet there are 
differences between their various states; and that which we call civili- 
zation, is not only unlike the others, but it actually shows as great 
and striking unlikeness to itself in its epochal transitions. 

Apprehending that we are now, and have been, for about a 
century, in a distinctly marked period of civilized progress, we want 
a name, which, though it must necessarily be vague, may yet be 
serviceable, because required to mark a change and a diflerence as 
great as any that have put men upon the use of the generally 
accepted terms for all the other marked unlikenesses in human 
societies. It was for the purpose of emphasizing with its due force 
this era in the progress of civilization that we postponed its further 
description by its characteristics at the close of our third chapter, 
until we should have first examined such of its features as seem 
now to be leading the more advanced nations to an order of their 
economic affairs that will some day be looked upon as another era 
in the ever progressive development of the race. Certain of its 
societies or families have now, as we think, fairly entered upon a 
new stage of progress, which demands, for distinctness of theoretic 
treatment, a new descriptive name. For this purpose we borrow 
and adopt the term Guarantyhm^ without intending to insist upon 
it as definitely descriptive of a change realized and completed, but 
as applicable to a border, or mixed, condition and drift, not well 



GUARANTYISM. 249 

defined, yet apparent; marked, but not clearly distinguished; 
recognizable, but not clearly separated from the stage in which it is 
arising for a new departure ; as so many other changes have begun 
in uanoticed movements, and afterwards revolutionized, by slowly 
reforming, human institutions ; as waves that are clearly distinct at 
their crests, but less and less in their slope toward the trough where 
they are inseparable and indistinguishable. 

To get this appreheasion clearly let us look at the aspects of 
civilization before the changes began which characterize the evolu- 
tion that we are about to consider : 

In the patriarchal system the family rule was protracted beyond 
the proper maturity of its subjects ; repressing their growth and 
abridging the liberties necessary to such growth. Barbarism loosened 
what was left of the ties proper to the family ia the patriarchal 
order, and allowed a little more of liberty and responsibility ; or, 
in terms which we prefer for their directer allusion to the things 
necessary to progress, a little more of individuality with its inci- 
dent capability of freer association. It, too, was slavery, but it was 
political and personal slavery, in longer and weaker chains than 
•those of the despotic power of the head of the tribal family. It 
began to recognize the individual's right to life and property, and 
to some modicum of right to self-service and self-government. It 
abdicated by degrees the absolutism of the priestly office, allowed 
some system of municipal law, and administered distributive justice 
by the rule of custom, privilege, and tradition — the will of the 
ruler was bounded by the law of the realm; and customs and institu- 
tions were at least fixed, and the community was organized and 
established, with some degree of stability of rights and security of 
interests. But individualism was still greatly repressed. In things 
most material to growth and development, the masses were still 
crushed into a crippled uniformity. Even the miscalled democracies 
of Greece had this grievous and repressive character. Men were 
banded and led, as the buffaloes of our prairies are, by the strongest 
and boldest of the herd. The track of the leader limited the 
adventures and the enterprise of the whole body. Great efficiency 
was secured in the execution of every common purpose; but national 
independence was mistaken for civil freedom, and, consent was not 
choice. Individualism, in all that the commonwealth commanded, 
17 



250 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

was suppressed; and only in those movements of mind and feeling 
which were indifferent to the commonwealth was liberty allowed. 

But men grew under the barbarism of Greece and Rome as they 
did under that of Egypt and x\sia; and as they grew still faster 
and greater under the feudal rule in ^Yestern Europe ; where first 
and most was felt the revolt of individualism against depotism, ever 
strengthened by its cumulative ameliorations — rising from tribal 
bondage, through monarchy more and more limited, until rebellion 
and revolution became possible and irresistible. 

This whole process in Europe, rightly understood, was simply a 
revolt against the one-man power that overruled every other man's 
distinctive rights. The consummation aimed at through all the 
struggles of the last five centuries of modern progress, more or less 
clearly intended, was the right of self-government, by the most 
appropriate and best answering political machinery. Along with 
this effort for securing civil liberty and for the redress of inju- 
ries suffered by its denial, grew the doctrine of reserved rights, 
which no government — not even governments by the people them- 
selves — may now in anywise invade, either for good or bad; such as 
the rights of conscience in religious faith and worship — the right 
to regulate one's own family — the right to do anything, and to 
leave anything undone, which does not immediately and directly 
infringe upon the like rights of others. 

If we look closely into this sentiment as it grew from tacit 
obedience up to full-fledged self-government, we will find that it 
rather took care of rights than provided for duties. The farthest 
that it at last conceded to the national authority was military 
service and necessary revenue. All else of public or social duty 
must be left to individual free will. Of the social charities none 
must be exacted, except the scanty support of the poor, which a 
common humanity consented to extort from the reluctant and 
inhuman, and this, not so much as a corporate debt as fronj the- 
greater convenience of organized almsgiving. The common educa- 
tion of the people by the state was resisted on the ground that it is 
an infringement of the voluntary principle — nay more, we have in 
vogue at this day a philosophical or logical system of political 
economy, popular all over Europe and America, founded and built 
upon the basis of natural rights, and grounded solely upon the self- 
hood of individual freedom. But individualism, severed from 



GUARANTYISM. 251 

association, has run its race, as it has served its purpose. It has 
dethroned the tyrannies of all preceding systems of opinion and 
government, and now, at the end of its absolutism, is merging into 
association in the form of Guarantyism. 

Thus, Civilization, in the proposed distinctive sense of the term, 
is best understood as the assertion and vindication of the rights of 
the individual, and the reformation of church and state politics, 
with this intent and to this end. Guarantyism may be described 
and distinguished as an effort for the promotion of association, 
reconstructed and amended, upon the basis of that large develop- 
ment of individualism acquired by its struggles against the earlier 
forms of unityism, which held the spirit of free association in 
abeyance. 

We have a parallel history in the long, and at last successful, 
struggle of materalism in science against the earlier rule of its 
antagonist, spiritualism; and in the returning movement of the 
rapidly growing sentiment of spiritualism, reformed, liberalized and 
regulated, displacing the undue preponderance and consequent 
abuses which it held during the dark ages and still maintained 
in great force to the end of the eighteenth century. 

We have another correspondence, in another necessarily associ- 
ated movement, with a similar revolt and a similar returning 
tendency toward a rectified system of association : political revolu- 
tion in the violence of its struggles went into Anarchy in its War 
with Despotism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in 
England and France ; until revolution had so far done its work that 
Order became a necessity, and its establishment worked a reaction 
which eliminated the abuses of authority and began the reestablish- 
ment of political and civil authority, guarded and abated by so much 
of the popular liberty won in the long contest, as the subjects were 
capable of using beneficially. 

These correspondences in religious opinion and political institu- 
tions are analogous to the renascence of the associative movement 
of the present epoch, so long held in check by the revulsion of 
individualism against the repressive unityism of the patriarchal, 
barbaric, and earlier civilized forms of society. 

In the military system, introduced by the monarchies of the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries we have another analogy: it 
comported with the spirit of feudalism, but it was sternly resisted 



252 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

afterwards by the growing spirit of liberty amoDg our English an- 
cestors; and the governing powers were forced to rely upon enlist- 
ments for the occasion, and volunteer recruitments for domestic de- 
fense — Individualism asserting itself, and the associative impulse 
emerging to supply, while it supplants, the former public policy. 

Treating civilization as a growth, and regarding its successive 
phases as an evolution of its own inherent forces, it might, perhaps, be 
expected that we should give the chief prominence and value to its 
achievements in the arts and sciences which have marked its pro- 
gress, and especially, those triumphs of mind over material forces 
which illustrate the history of the last hundred years. These, 
indeed, are signs, and they are wonders as well; but it may be ques- 
tioned whether in all the varied forms of enterprise, discovery and 
achievement, the present century is a much further advance upon 
the last, than the thirteenth was upon the twelfth, or either of the 
intervening ones upon its immediate predecessor. The eighteenth 
and nineteenth differ in glory from the sixteenth and seventeenth, 
but these compare as grandly with the respective ages preceding 
them, and they contributed, besides, as nobly to that which has 
followed, and now overshadows them. 

Material progress is necessarily an enhancement, at the rate of 
compound interest, and the last accumulation of every successive 
period owes its surpassing attainments to the enlarged capital 
which it inherits. Neither in kind nor in degree, do the latest 
achievements of science and art exceed in their rate of advancement, 
those from which they sprang. 

The magnetic telegraph, the relative circumstances considered, 
has its rival in the discovery of the mariner's compass ; and the 
printing press was as great a step in advance of the earlier mode of 
multiplying copies, as steam power applied to service in production, 
travel, and transportation, over the machinery which it excels and 
supercedes. The magnitude of the results in the later period is 
greatest ; but so much as this can scarcely be said of the rate of 
advancement. Distinguishing the efficiencies involved in societary 
development into three classes — those which are employed in the 
mastery and amendment of material conditions ; those devoted to 
mental endeavor distinctively ; and those which concern moral and 
spiritual life — it is apparent that we, of this age, have scarcely 
advanced intellectual vigor more rapidly than the generation of two 



GUARANTYISM. 25S 

hundred years ago; that our grandest conquests in the realm of 
physics are but the normal outgrowth of the seed sown in good soil 
by our fathers, to whom the enhanced fertility, as well as the 
greater product, is justly due; and, that we must look to what the 
present time has done, and is doing, in the work of social ameliora- 
tion, for its distinguishing glory. 

Political regeneration in the service, and for the sake of all 
classes and races, began its great career in 1776, and crowned itself 
with its last promise fulfilled before the first centennial anniversary of 
its birthday. The movement begun in the youngest of the nations, 
with capacities ripened in the oldest, has kept the lead, indeed, but 
it has been followed at greater or less distance, but still followed, 
by the kindred peoples of the same common stock. Suffrage and 
representation in government have grown, by sympathy, in all the 
nations of which ours was born. All the offshoot peoples from the 
European stock are responsive to the grand example of the greatest 
republic of colonial origin. 

The last hundred years has distinguished itself by the spread of 
Christian knowledge in heathen lands, and by labor for the exten- 
sion of the religion and morality of the Scriptures, more than any 
of its predecessors — the British, American, French, and Grerman 
Bible, Tract, and Missionary Societies are of this period — all of 
them except the Moravian, which antedates the era of the Pro- 
testant enterprises of this kind by but a few years. 

The first movement of organized effort in the temperance reform 
was begun in the United States in 1825. Father Matthew began 
his great work in Ireland in 1830, and numbered above two mil- 
lions of his countrymen among his converts before he finished his 
labors. 

It is quite impossible to esitmate the benefits conferred upon the 
world by these systematic benevolences, addressed to the moral and 
social amelioration of society, by the associative agencies of the 
era which are thus so decidedly characteristic of the present times. 

In 1786 England had one hundred and thirty ships engaged in 
the slave trade, and the traffic was not abolished by statute there 
until 1807. In the United States its suppression had been pro- 
vided for by a clause in the Federal Constitution adopted in 1789, 
and negro slavery itself had been abolished by several of the States 
nine or ten years before. As early as 1754 the Quakers had for- 



254 QUESTIONS or the day. 

bidden it among themselves ; but it was not more tban forty years 
ago that voluntary organizations were formed in the United States 
and Great Britain for the suppression of the system of negro 
slavery, which, beginning in the British colonies in 1833, was 
finally consummated in the United States by authority of the Con- 
stitution in 1865, and the whole colored race was enfranchised by 
another amendment proclaimed on the 30th March, 1869. 

Charity schools date as early as 1687 in England, but common 
schools opened for the children of the whole people, and maintained 
at the public expense, and generally diffused throughout the princi- 
pal nations of Europe and the United States, had their earliest 
date quite within the transition age which we now are concerned 
■with, and their great extension has happened within the last fifty 
years. 

As late as 1839 after a grant of £30,000 for national education, 
proposed by Lord John Russell, had passed in the Commons by a 
majority of two votes (on a vote of five hundred and forty-eight 
members), the House of Lords went in a body two days after to 
ask the Queen to rescind the grant. 

The vast proportion to which the common school system, as a 
state institution, has grown, scarcely admits of statistical statement. 
In all the States of the United States, north of the boundaries of 
the slave region, it has long been in successful operation. 

It appears from the census of 1860 that five million persons were 
then receiving instruction in the various educational institutions of 
the country. This number is equal to sixty-six per cent of all the 
white population between the ages of seven and eighteen, and to 
seventy-five per cent batween the ages of eight and sixteen. For 
a better apprehension of these numbers, it may be noticed that in 
Prussia, — where education is compulsory upon all children between 
the ages of seven and fourteen, and where the result was found in 
the fact that in 1845 there were only two young men between the 
ages of twenty and twenty-two, in the hundred, who could not read, 
write, and cipher, — the number of scholars at schools were but one to 
every six and two-tenths persons, while, at the same time, of the 
total white population of the United States there were as many as 
one to every four and nine-tenths persons ; — the State of Maine, 
exceeding in her proportion of scholars at school all other States 
in the Union, and the United States exceeding all other countries 



GUARANTYISM. 255 

Whatsoever, except Denmark, wliicli had one to every four and six- 
tenths persons. 

In New England only one person over twenty years of age in 
every four hundred of the native whites is incapable of reading and 
writing, and in the non-slaveholding States, taken together, but one 
in forty inhabitants, or two and five-tenths per cent ; and this rate 
is very materially increased by the immigration of illiterate persons 
from Europe, for it is in these States that they nearly all settle. 
Besides, these embrace the new and sparse settlements of the west 
and northwest, where the institution of schools, and attendance at 
them, is greatly embarassed by the natural impediments of pioneer 
life. This must account for the fact that, twenty years ago, the 
illiterate of Indiana were seven and one-quarter per cent of the 
white inhabitants; while in New York and Pennsylvania they were 
less than three per cent. Arkansas and Tennessee, both affected 
alike by the system of slavery and sparseness of population, had 
above ten per cent, and North Carolina, in the same conditions, 
above thirteen in the hundred of her white population who could 
not read and write at the age of twenty. 

As an accompaniment, and in some good degree, an index to the 
work of popular education as administered by State authorities, , 
the libraries, other than private, in 1850, held four and one-half 
millions of volumes, and the number of political and periodical 
papers, literary, scientific, religious and secular, had an annual cir- 
culation then of four hundred and forty-six millions of copies. Ten 
years afterwards, when the population had increased but thirty-five 
per cent, the number rose to nine hundred and twenty-eight mil- 
lions — an increase of one hundred and seventeen and one-half per 
cent J or, in 1850, the annual circulation afforded an average of a 
fraction less than twenty-two copies to each white person in the 
Union, but in 1860 was equivalent to a supply of thirty-four and 
one-third copies per person ; and, in keeping with these signs 
of an extending and improving education of the people^ it may be 
noted that the value of the books published in the latter year 
increased in the decade from three and four-tenths millions to 
eleven and eight-tenths millions of dollars, or two hundred and 
forty-seven per cent; and that of the job and newspaper printing 
at the same rate. 

In the social virtue of almsgiving the present age is not dis- 



256 QUESTIONS or the day. 

tinguislied from, at least not above, the preceding centuries of Chris- 
tianity, but we can claim, for the time, the better and kindlier 
administration, as a characteristic of the passing centenary — a bet- 
ter provision for the wants of pauperism, and an extended sphere 
of the beneficence which it expresses. All such improvement as 
the spirit of the times has impressed upon the legal system of 
relief, belongs to the period which has diminished the number of 
capital offences from fifty or sixty, a hundred years ago, to three 
or four in the present day in England,* and along with this, has 
abolished the torture of corporal punishment inflicted in the days of" 
the early Georges. The abolition of imprisonment for debt, the 
reformation of prison treatment, and the exemption of more or 
less of insolvents' property from attachment, belong in like man- 
ner to the nineteenth Christian century. 

In the United States, in all these charities and benevolences, we 
are grandly in advance of the mother countries of Europe. Scarcely 
a State in the Union punishes any offence with death except murder 
in the first or highest degree. Treason, Europe's highest crime of" 
old time, with us is reduced almost to the rank of a misdemeanor; 
not a single individual of all the millions engaged in the late 
Rebellion was capitally, or otherwise punished as for crime against 
the sovereignty of the Federal Union, whose criminal code, never- 
theless, still retains the punishment of death for the crime of slave- 
trading on the high seas ; and, we may safely add that the tender- 
ness for life, growing out of the higher appreciation of liberty, and 
along with it, which makes conviction for capital offences almost 
impossible, and has abolished the penalty of death in one of our 
States, bids fair, ere long, to substitute some form of correction 
combined with restraint, for the ultimate and remediless infliction 
of the death penalty. 

Thus much in illustration of what we have assumed to be the 
distinguishing characteristic of the last hundred years of the history 
of civilization, as it is shown in amendment of the political and legal 
institutions of the most advanced of the nations. 

* Blackstone, Commentaries, Book iv., cli.Tp. 1, says: "It is a melancholy truth 
that among the variety of actions which men are daily liable to commit, no less^ 
than a hundred and sixty have been declared by act of Parliament to be worthy 
of instant death." This book was first published in 1770. His annotator, writing 
in 1840, says : " many of these rigorous acts have lately been repealed, and milder 
punishments have been substituted." 



GUARANTYISM. 25T 

Along with these social ameliorations, effected through the forms 
and forces of municipal law, we may claim for the age a vast exten- 
sion of the various systems of insurance — life, property, and maritime 
— with their indemnities against loss, and assurance under risk, which 
associates the parties in mutual and participated protection against 
the consequences of unavoidable injuries, to which the parties are 
exposed. Maritime assurance had a very early origin; as early, it 
is said, as the first century of the Christian era, and the policy was 
recognized and enforced by law in Italy as early as the year 1194. 
In the year 1667; the first after the great fire, insurance of houses 
and goods began in London. 

The superintendent of the insurance department of the State of 
New York reports, on March 1, 1865, one hundred and sixty-two 
joint stock and mutual fire insurance companies in the State, 
fourteen marine, thirty-one life, and one casualty company, with 
gross assets amounting to one hundred and fifty-one millions of 
dollars, and adds that, " several of these companies now receive an 
annual income exceeding the annual revenue of some of our State 
governments and many European principalities and Kingdoms. 
Some idea of the rate of increase in this business may be formed 
from a comparison instituted between them in the years 1860-4. 
The aggregate premiums of one hundred and fifty-seven companies — 
of fire, marine, and life insurance — chartered by the State, rose 
from twenty-four to thirty-nine millions; the assets from sixty-seven 
to one hundred and four millions; the fire risks in force, from 
nine hundred and sixteen, to sixteen hundred and fifteen, millions. 
Here we have an increase in the values insured of seventy-six per 
cent in a period of only four years, beginning the year before the 
Rebellion and ending before its conclusion, notwithstanding the 
large deduction of insurances of every kind, usually taken by the 
Southern States, which must have happened. 

Akin to insurance institutions is the savings bank system, of which 
the earliest instances fall within the centenary now elapsing. " These 
banks may be said, indeed, to have taken their effective form, and 
acquired all their importance within the present century. The 
earliest traces of them are in Hamburg, in 1778, and in Berne 
(Switzerland), in 1787. Their general adoption in France, Prussia, 
and England, occurred between the years 1816 and 1820. One of 
the first attempts; of which we find any notice, to realize such an 



258 QUESTIONS OP THE DAY. 

institution in England, was made by Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield, at 
Tottenham, near London, in 1803; and the earliest on a large scale 
at Edinburgh, in 1814. Soon after they were fairly started in 
England (in 1816), they were brought under parliamentary regula- 
tion. Their progress was very rapid. From 1817 to 1828, inclusive, 
the commissioners for the reduction of the public debt received 
from the directors of savings banks the sum of £13,746,546, for 
which government paid four per cent interest. In 1861, the aggre- 
gate capital of these banks, in the United Kingdom, was £41, — 
546,475. In England and Wales, £36,855,508, when the total 
securities held by the Bank of England were, at the highest, a little 
under £30,000,000. Quite the half of the depositors in England 
usually have less than £20 apiece in these banks ; one-third of the 
whole number, less than £50 ; and, only one-sixth of the whole 
number held more than £50. These facts show them to be the 
institutions of the provident poor people of the realm ; and it is 
this feature, so conspicuously prominent, that entitles them to a 
place among the associative movements of the present times. Mr. 
McCulloch describes them as " banks established for the receipt of 
small sums, deposited by the poorer class of persons, and for their 
accumulation at compound interest. Under the Act of Parliament 
of 1844, the interest payable to depositors is not to exceed three 
per cent per annum. No depositor can contribute more than £30, 
exclusive of compound interest, to a savings bank in any one year ; 
and the total deposits to be received from any individual are not to 
exceed £150." He gives, for the year 1850, the number of deposi- 
tors in these banks, in the United Kingdom, at one million, ninety- 
two thousand, five hundred and eighty-one; and the average amount 
to each at £25; more than five-eighths of them, however, averaging 
only £6 ; and one-fourth of them at £31 apiece, only. He says 
well, that " the principle and object of the savings banks cannot be 
too highly commended. Until they were established, the poorer 
classes were everywhere without the means of securely and profitably 
investing those small sums which they are not unfrequently in a 
condition to save, and were consequently led, from the difficulty of dis- 
posing of them, to neglect opportunities of making savings, and nothing 
could be more important, in view of diffusing habits of forethought 
and economy amongst the laboring classes, than the establishment of 
savings banks, where the smallest sums are placed in perfect safety, 



GUARANTYISM. 259 

are accumulated at compound interest, and are paid, with their 
accumulations, the moment they are demanded by the depositors." 

The first savings bank in America was opened in Philadelphia, in 
1816. The spread and growth of these institutions in the United 
States, and their present condition, cannot be ascertained with such 
completeness as would make it worth while to attempt a statistical 
statement. But in general terms we are warranted, by the data at 
hand, in putting their whole number at above five hundred, with an 
aggregate of deposits exceeding two hundred and fifty millions of 
dollars. Some notion of the relative magnitude of this grand sum, 
thus accumulated and employed in the business of the country, 
while it is at the same time paying good interest to the depositors, 
may be had from the corresponding money movement in the national 
banking system which embraces almost the entirety of the banks of 
issue in the country. The controller of the national currency reports 
their aggregate capital at four hundred and twenty millions, and the 
aggregate individual deposits at five hundred and fifty millions. Put 
these sums together and we find that the savings banks of the nation 
are the depositories of an amount equal to one-fourth of all money 
collected and distributed by all the other banks in operation, other 
than those of private bankers. 

In the year 1862 there were two hundred and fifteen savings banks 
in the six New England States; 452,637 depositors, averaging 1204 
each, and aggregating $94,325,066 ; in New York and Pennsylva- 
nia there were one hundred and twelve banks; 360,693 depositors; 
averaging $206 each and aggregating $77,450,397. In 1864, the 
New England States reported an increase of ten banks, 79,694 
depositors, and an increase of $25,104,347 to the aggregate of their 
deposits, averaging $224 to each depositor. The State of New 
York had made a still greater increase in three years, rising from 
310,693 depositors and $67,450,397 in amount, with an average 
of $214 to the credit of each in 1862, to 456,721 depositors, 
$111,793,425 in bank, and the average of $244 each, in 1865. 

We have not quoted the activity and extension of insurance and 
savings institutions as instances of the associative movement which 
we regard as characterizing and distinguishing the hundred years 
past, which we have called the age of guarantyism. They are not 
of the essence, but they cannot be overlooked, among the evidences 
of the times in which the stage of individualism is merging into 



260 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

association, and selfhood is growing into cooperation. They are 
incidental and collateral, but they are symptomatic and inseparable. 
They are the earliest strivings and the outward accompaniments of 
an impulse that is translating the brotherhood of men into coopera- 
tion in industrial pursuits, and copartnership in risks and profits. 
The principle of legal corporation is the very earliest form of the 
perception of the benefit of mutuality — the first indistinct realiza- 
tion of its serviceableness ; for it is true that, every societary move- 
ment in the progress of the race has a material, answering to its 
spiritual, spring, and always its harbinger. Harmony of interests 
in business affairs, naturally enough, precedes the harmony prompted 
by social sentiments, among the masses of mankind. Material 
interest is as the bud of brotherhood, its material profit is the 
plainest and strongest persuasive, but the social germ grows with 
its growth and ripens in its fruit. A legal corporation is the 
simplest type, as well as the earliest form of cooperation. In it we 
have the unity and identity of interests which convert numbers into 
one artificial person, with perpetual succession and joint and 
equitable participation of all its beneficial products, at the expense 
of its joint maintenance and a fair division of its risks and losses. 

Capital, as distinct from the labor of which it is the secured fruit, 
very early in civilization went into association, and this tendency 
measures the growth and grade of societary progress. All the great 
works of modern times are the results, and the evidences of its force 
in its free movement. The pyramids of Egypt, and the cities, roads, 
and canals of the barbaric ages were produced by associated labor 
in bondage. The greater works of the latest times have come from 
capital associated in freedom. Labor in liberty is now learning the 

/ force of union, and beginning to provide the conditions for securing 
its advantages. Money is the dried and preserved fruit of work — 
it will keep and will bear the attrition of the necessary fellowship 

I which gives it multiplied eflScieney. Labor is a live thing, with 
susceptibilities, and incapacities, which make the conditions of per- 

. ' feet association hard to secure, but which are indispensable to the 
fusion of identity, and the required harmonies of cooperation. Men 
must be better before they can grow nearer, and a very high grade 
of excellency is necessary to general coalescence. They must coin- 
cide before they can thoroughly correspond. 

In the infancy of civilization men begin to club their cash ; a 



GUARANTYISM. 261 

little later they unite to divide risks upon realized property most 
exposed to loss; a little later still, they venture, in the first 
strengthenings of faith, to joint management by its necessary 
agents, in prder to provide for profits — they invent partnerships, 
securing them as well as they can against the treacheries that are 
incident to trust; and a little later still, the associative movement 
recognizes the social charities which they can serve. Marine, fire, 
life, health insurance, legal corporations, which exempt the corpo- 
rators from all loss beyond the definite value in the venture, are so 
entirely material in their motives, that corporations have been long 
described as things without souls: That they have powerful bodies 
is the reason that they get leave to live and work for their owners. 
Yet evil as their reputation is, they have some of the virtue of 
principle, as well as that of efiiciency, and they are found conveni- 
ent forms for exerting more and more of the social force, as they are 
extended to other and finer uses. The office of almsgiving is by all 
improving societies devolved upon the corporate authorities; and 
benevolence, which is in its nature voluntary, takes upon itself the 
compulsory character of a societary obligation. A donation comes 
to be a tax, that the duty may be equitably apportioned and 
thoroughly performed. Instead of the pyramids that barbarism 
compelled, arise the poor-houses built by consent, with a grain of 
the involuntary built into them out of the constrained contributions 
of the reluctant. Here the material and the spiritual springs of 
movement begin to work together, somewhat to the damage and 
deterioration of each, yet to eventual advantage in the compromise; 
and men learn the ways and means of " looking not alone upon their 
own things, but also upon the things of others," and, whether they 
expect " to receive a hundredfold for all they give here, in the world 
to come," or not; or, whether they are induced to make so long a loan 
of goods and chattels, or not, they discover that the charities, as 
investments which make such large returns to the giver, can be 
administered on business principles to the very highest rate of 
profit. By this time they have gone through and graduated in the 
social branches of insurance, dividends, and profits, which begin 
and end in property interests, and are ready for other movements 
that pay risks, dividends, and profits as they go, and do not end in im- 
mediate individual benefits ; movements that secure self better than 
any that refuse association, and whose expenses and losses are the 



262 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

lightest of all that beleaguer them, and are at the same time not 
dead losses even when they happen, because they are vital to the 
highest ends, and in the effects intended. 

Having banked profitably upon property and credit, and even 
made capital of their mortality for the use of their survivors, they 
proceed to extend the investment of their possible casualties of 
health and fortune, and thus convert them into a fund provided 
for the redress of their evils and injuries. After saving funds 
come beneficial societies, under a hundred forms of organization, iu 
which provision for relief in sickness and misfortune are the 
special objects of associated contributions. 

Beneficial societies having no need for a central government, and 
not being required to report their statistics to the civil governments 
in England or America, their numbers, growth and work cannot be 
estimated. That they are very extensive in England and Ireland, 
where they are known as " friendly societies," is indicated by the 
amount of their aggregate deposits standing to their credit in the 
year 1850, which was $5,000,000, averaging $688 to each contri- 
butor. This sum is nearly six times the average amount standing 
to the credit of each depositor in the savings banks of England 
at the same time; which is explained by the difference of the 
management of their funds in the two institutions. In the savings 
banks the deposit is liable to be withdrawn at will, but in the 
friendly societies the capital and interest must be held in reserve 
for the relief of the members as the casualties occur for which it 
is provided. The total fund remaining at any time is just the 
surplus of the provision for the purposes for which it was raised, 
and so large a surplus as this shows the amplitude of the provision 
raised from the very trivial contributions of the members. They 
are described as "associations, chiefly among the most industrious 
of the lower and middling classes of tradesmen and mechanics, for 
the purpose of affording each other relief in sickness, and their 
widows and children some assistance at their death." 

Corresponding associations in the United States are called "bene- 
ficial societies," having the same objects and controlled in the same 
way. Not specially recognized here, as in England, nor put under 
direction by the law, nor having any responsibility, or needing any 
protection, they make no public reports, and we have no official 
statistics of their number, funds, or work. They are, however, 



I 



GUARANTYISM. 263 

very numerous, and proportionately useful. Eacli association deter- 
mines for itself the conditions of membership, the weekly or monthly 
contributions, the weekly allowance to the sick, the amount of 
funeral expenses allowed to members and their families, and the 
cash and care promised to widows and orphans. The allowances in 
sickness are usually quite equal to the ordinary earnings of the 
beneficiary, if they are not even greater than those of the skilled 
laborer ; and, generally, the tax upon the members is not larger per 
year than the relief granted for a week's illness; besides, the 
funeral donation is always sufficient to cover its expense. At such 
easy rates is insurance provided for sickness and such casualties as 
disqualify the members for self-support. 

As a matter of policy, as well as principle, these societies 
guard the general moral conduct of their members by expulsion 
for crimes and misconduct discreditable to the association ; and they 
refuse relief for sickness and accidents plainly traceable to intem- 
perance or to practices contrary to public morals. 

It is true of them generally that the societies grow rich, even to 
the extent of requiring, in some of the oldest and largest of them, 
an occasional distribution of the manifest excess of their common 
funds among the members, by whose contributions they have 
accumulated beyond the charitable requirements for which they 
were intended. 

The like provision made by the rapidly-multiplying secret socie- 
ties of the time, checks the growth of the primitive associations, 
and they are, accordingly, found to prevail chiefly among the 
Roman Catholics, to whom membership in secret societies is for- 
bidden by their Church; and, among such Protestants as are 
unwilling to encumber themselves with the additional require- 
ments and^expenses of the secret orders. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

GUARANTYISM — SECRET SOCIETIES. 

GuARANTYiSM — SECRET SOCIETIES : Free Masons. — Growth of Secret Orders. — 
Odd Fellows — origin, success — Colored and British Odd Fellows — Negroes and 
women excluded — Rebekah degree — Statistics — Ratio of reliefs to revenue — 
Expenses of membership — Suspensions and expulsions — Geographic distribu- 
tion of the Order — Law of climate — Political possibilities. — Knights of Pythias 
— Rate of increase — Statistics — Abundant resources — Geographic distribution 
of the Order — Revenue and reliefs — Charities — Expense of membership — Penal 
provisions — German lodges — Exclusion of women and negroes. — Temperance 
Societies — History — Propagandism. — Temperance Orders. — Sons of Temperance 
— Organization — Numbers and revenue — Benefits — Death rate — Expulsions — 
Beneficial provisions dropped — Female members — Causes of declension of the 
Order. — Beneficial Orders — Multiplex membership — Ample provision in sick- 
ness — These Orders prevail just where they are most needed — Growing liberality 
to women — Prejudice of color. — Colored Orders. — Order of United American 
Mechanics — Abundant resources — Trivial expense of membership — Junior Order 
— Order of foreigners. 

With secret societies our inquiries are concerned only so f\ir as 
they are involved with, and indicate tlie associative movements of 
the times, and, as they provide for the risks and casualties of life, 
or, to the extent that these societies make their members partners 
in common misfortunes, and mutual insurers of each other's temporal 
welfare, with the incident help that there is in the moral discipline, 
and careful surveillance of the membership exercised by the asso- 
ciation.* 

Free Masonry., for several reasons, should be first Noticed and 
disposed of. It claims precedence by its rank and antiquity. It is, 
however, exceptional in this inquiry, being much older than the age 
of guarantyism proper, independent of the great popular movement 
which specially characterizes the last hundred years of societary 
history, and comparatively but little more adjusted to the new, than 
to the olden time. Free Masonry is, as it must be, afi'ected by the 

* The reader, perhaps, ought to be apprised that the author is not now^ and 
never has been, a member of any secret Order or Association. 
264 



GUARANTYISM — SECRET SOCIETIES. 265 

chaages that, in the progress of things, impress upon all institutions 
of men ; but it has not arisen from the exigencies of the present 
phase of civilized society, is not one of its fruits, nor a specially 
good index of its character. Its civil, social, and charitable work 
may be, and probably is, all that its advocates claim for it; and it 
may be liable to all the objections made against it, or it may be 
wholly free frona them. In either case, neither its members, its 
funds, nor the amount of its reliefs, are necessarily involved in that 
order of things which gives its special character to the new age, 
however it may conform or contribute to its movements. 

But, within the present century, there have arisen an immense 
variety of secret orders and associations that are rolling on with 
cumulative force, and bid fairly now to aggregate the entire mass of 
the advancing communities of Christendom. Some of them are 
purely benevolent in their avowed objects; their paraphernalia, 
degrees of honor, and other attractions, being only designed to 
increase their fascinations, and promote their progress ; others, and 
indeed, in some degree, all, may minister to ends less worthy, and 
less important; and they may be just subjects of exception, too, in 
matters more or less important to their members and to the commu- 
nity; for all human institutions are liable to the imperfections and 
abuses of human frailty. But we are not now concerned with any- 
thing in them, intended, incidental, or possible, except their 
tendency to promote, and their service in displaying, the character- 
istic im.pulses of that advanced, and still advancing, phase of 
civilization, in which we see repellant and discordant individualism 
giving way to the emergent spirit of cooperation, and effecting the 
organization of benevolence in all the forms of which the age has 
become capable. 

Among these societies, working for and towards reunion and 
limited guarantyism. Odd Fellowship, by its age and numbers, 
its wealth and rate in growth, takes precedence. 

The Order, in America, was founded in the year 1819, by five 
members. Its sentiment — •' The Fatherhood of God over all, and 
the universal brotherhood of man ;" its motto — " Friendship, Love, 
and Truth." The Order claims to have enrolled over half a million 
of votaries within its first half century. Its lodges have spread into 
every State in the Union, some of the islands of the Pacific, and 
into the British American Provinces, and Australia, where it has 
18 



266 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

recently absorbed a somewhat older but much weaker order, origi- 
nally founded in Great Britain ; with which the Colored Odd 
Fellows of the United States, excluded from fellowship by their 
white brethren, under the long prevailing prejudice of color, are in 
full fellowship. In common with other associations of whites in the 
United States, whose general profession of philanthropy, humanity, 
and benevolence in the past, had a like limitation in principle and 
practice, the Odd Fellows excluded negroes and women from its 
membership ; and the former from all forms and operations of its 
charities. The prejudice of color is the reason, and the whole 
reason, of the severance of the American from the English brother- 
hood; and this difference had to be overcome in Australia by its 
surrender there, before a unity of jurisdiction could be effected. 

Very recently, by the creation of what in the Order is called the 
Rehekah Degree, women are admitted into a collateral branch, 
without acquiring all the privileges and immunities of full member- 
ship, but are made capable of its charitable offices, and, to some 
extent, of its dignities and authorities within their own degree, in 
which they participate with male members : the Rebekah Degree 
■being constituted of both sexes. This sentiment is progressive, 
and evidently tends to the concession of larger and larger partici- 
pation to the long-excluded sex. It is not necessary here to trace 
the influences that are gradually widening the humanitary spirit of 
the Order for the admission of a sisterhood into the brotherhood, 
and it is, also, unnecessary to look for the probability of the new 
order of things amongst us in its necessary tendency to break 
through the prejudice that has hitherto barred out the colored race 
from its universalit}' of brotherhood and benevolence. But we may 
expect that all changes in the general sentiment of society will 
reflect their effects, sooner or later, upon those whose assumed posi- 
tion is in the advance, and who are specially pledged to advance the 
" universal brotherhood of man." 

The progress of this American Order is a sign of the times, and 
so significant as to give interest to some of its general details. 
From the report of the Grand Lodge of the United States, held at 
San Francisco, in September, 1869, we take the materials of the 
following tabular statement, exhibiting the gi'owth of the mcujber- 
ship and revenue, and of the relief afforded during the three last 
decades. 



I 



GUARANTYISM — SECRET SOCIETIES. 267 

Decade. Revemxe. Reliefs. Initiates. Proportion of reliefs 



to revenue. 



1S30-9 $ 327,935 no record. 18,060 

1S40-9 4,933,492 $1,864,115 179,754 37.78 per cent. 

1850-9 12,951,453 6,064,397 234,252 46.82 " 

1860-9 13,111,133 4,846,518 228^193 36.96 " 



Totals $31,324,013 $12,775,030 660,259 41.21 " 

These totals need some explanation. Tlie excess of eighteen 
and a half millions of revenue over expenditures in relief of 
brothers, their widows, and orphans, is due to cost of conducting 
the lodges; such as regalia, rent, fuel, light, salaries, and other 
expenses, with probably an aggregate fund of nine millions in the 
treasuries of the lodges, available for all uses. The initiates sum 
up 660,259 within forty years, but the reported membership in 
Jutie, 1869, was only 268,608. The difference of 400,000, nearly, 
must be accounted for by deaths, suspensions, and expulsions. The 
number of brothers relieved during the last year and the year 
before does not amount to quite nine per cent of the total member- 
ship of either year, and the deaths of the year ending June, 1869, 
were but eight-tenths of one per cent of the membership at the 
beginning of the year. The average reliefs, in proportion to the 
revenue of the forty years, was forty-one and tweuty-one one-hun- 
dredths per cent, but the proportion of the last two years was but 
thirty-two per cent. The toi'd revenue of the year 1867-8, 
ending June 30, 1868, of the lodges and encampments, amounted 
to 12,364,295, and of the year 1868-9 to ,$2,630,316. The tax 
per head to the tiiitl membership would thus appear to be nine 
dollars per annum; but the invested funds must have yielded 
nearly half a million to the revenue, which, being deducted, would 
reduce the average taxation per member to about eight dollars per 
annum. This is, indeed, a cheap rate of assurance for the health, 
and provision for the burial expenses of the members, with relief 
of widows and orphans added. The increase of the membership 
has been about ton per cent per annum during the last five years. 
This is double the rate of increase in the membership of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania during the same time. 
The death rale in the Odd Fellow societies is also apparently in 
their favor, but, perhaps, not really so. The deaths in the Church 
are as twelve to eight in the Order ; but the Order selects its candi- 



268 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

dates, excludiDg the unhealthy among men, all women, and all of 
both sexes under twenty-one years of age. 

The suspensions of the la3t two years number 25.721, and were 
equal to thirty-one per cent of the initiations; most of these,- how- 
ever, were for non-payment of dues. In the Grand Sire's address, 
delivered in 1SG8, he says that ''in the last twenty years there 
have been 214,990 members suspended from membership, and, 
with few exceptions, for non-payment of dues." About one-third 
of the members suspended are usually reinstated; so that about 
twenty per cent of the initiations are lost to the Order from causes 
which do not involve any other unfitness or unworthiness than 
" suspension '' implies. 

The expulsions are annually something less than one per cent of 
the total membership. Their names and offenses are published, 
and besides those that are made " for conduct imbecoming an Odd 
Fellow," nearly every crime against society, and every form of 
moral depravity known among men, are in the list of offenses. 
Among these, drunkenness, with its attendant crimes, figures first 
in the number of its subjects. It is curious to see how far the 
severest discipline of the lodges reaches in rebuke of private vices — 
a great many cases are given of expulsion for lying, slander, neglect 
and abuse of family, gambling and keeping gambling houses, viola- 
tion of the laws of the State in restraint of liquor selling, selling 
liquor to drunkards against the remonstrances of their wives, re- 
fusing aid to sick brothers, and. in one case, diluting the liquor 
administered to a sick brother. Rioting and assault and battery 
frequently occur in the list, divulging secrets of the Order in a 
few instances, and in one case "general meanness" is the charge. 
It is safe to say that the oftenses here named are probably rather 
flagrant degrees, and publicly offensive ; for, it cannot be assumed 
that the members in good standing are wholly free from any and all 
of them. In the last report of the Grand Lodge the expulsions for 
the State of Pennsylvania are given at 121 ''for conduct unbecom- 
ing Odd Fellows." Names and offenses not given ; but, for all the 
other States, the offenders and their specific misdemeanors are pub- 
lished without reserve. The aggregate for the year is summed up 
at 1,0S1. 

The geographic distribution of the Order in the United States is 
something curious. The whole membership in June, 18G0. was 



GUARANTYISM — SECRET SOCIETIES. 269 

-268,608 ; of these Pennsylvania had 69,770, or twenty-five per cent, 
while New York with a much larger population had but 17,950 
members, or only six and two-thirds per cent of the total member- 
ship in North America. More curious still, climate or race seems 
to have its influence here as in other societary facts and move- 
ments. Between latitude 39^ and 42,° north, seventy-one and eight- 
tenths per cent of the total membership is found • that is, in the 
District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey, West-Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, 
Kansas, Colorado, Nevada, and California — fifteen States and Terri- 
tories, there are 192,954 of the Order, The six New England 
States. New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, Ne- 
braska, Montana, and the British provinces — all lying above lati- 
tude 42° north, had but 54,111 members, or twenty and one-tenth 
per cent of the total; and all south of 38^ — fourteen States and 
Territories — had 21,536, or a fraction over eight per cent. 

The Bebellion, of course, had some effect upon the membership in 
the southern belt of States, from which they have not yet recovered, 
but the law of climate and its effects upoQ the inhabitants, rules 
here, forcibly and conspicuously. Else, how shall we account for 
the phenomena in the northern belt, in which a population of nine 
millions of the inhabitants of the Union, in I860, with three millions 
and a half in the British provinces, to be added, should show but 
twenty per cent of the total membership; while the middle belt with no 
more than twelve millions of people (12,359,870 free people in 1860) 
has seventy-two per cent. Or, if a comparison of communities in 
the nearest equality of conditions, and located most nearly to each 
other be chosen, we have this result : in 1868 the six New England 
States and the State of New York cast 1,402.612 votes at the 
Presidential election, and together, in 1869, had 37,137 Odd 
Fellows, which are equal to two and two-thirds per cent of their 
voters. Pennsylvania cast 655,662 votes at the same election, and 
had, in 1869, 69,770 Odd Fellows, or eleven and one-half per cent 
of her voters. The proportion of Odd Fellows to the Presidential 
votes, in 1868, of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ohio was eight 
per cent, or a little more than three to one against New England 
and New York. 

As we shall have other occasions for noticing sectionality or 
locality in other instances of social cooperation, we will just now 



270 QUESTIONS or THE DAY. 

note the fact that the New England States, with a population of 
3,135,283 in 1860, had together 19,187 Odd Fellows in 1869, and 
Pennsylvania numbering 2.906,115 in 1860, had in 1869, 69,770 
Odd Fellows. 

Here we have a society which has been growing in membership 
for several years at the rate of ten per cent per annum, with its 
revenues increasing at the rate of above eleven per cent, and a sur- 
plus, over and above its real estate, of about nine millions of dollars, 
while increasing its charities at the rate of eight and one-half per 
cent per annum. Power doubling about once in seven years, if it 
shall have the gift and grace of continuance. It embraces indeed 
less than four per cent of the total voting population of the Union, 
but it measures from eight to eleven per cent of the voters of the 
Middle States, and is therefore of great political importance ; or, it 
is at least capable of great political influence if it could be so em- 
ployed. But, I apprehend that its future will not answer to its 
present attainment, and its progress in the immediate past. Other 
associations, availing themselves of its special advantages and at- 
tractions, and relieving themselves of whatever is less favorably 
addressed to the public demand, will more and more abate its rate 
of progress; or so amend the institution itself, as to answer the 
same purpose — they will better, or they will supplant it. 

We have another Order, generally like that of Odd Fellowship, 
which is making very rapid progress ; it may be in virtue of a better 
adjustment to a diflorent class of the community. It is not yet 
seven years old, and, lacking the complete sectional organization of 
time and experience, its statistics are not attainable with satisfictory 
precision. 

The order of the KNKiHTS of Pythias was founded on the 19th 
of February, 1861. In April, 1870, it had about seventy-five thou- 
sand members in the United States. At the annual session of the 
Supreme Lodge, held at Richmond, Virginia, in March, 1869, the 
subordinate lodges were — thirteen in the District of Columbia; one 
hundred and forty-sis in Pennsylvania; twenty in New Jersey; 
thirty-two in Maryland; ten in Delaware; eight in New York; 
seven in Virginia ; five in Connecticut ; two in Louisiana ; two in 
Nebraska; two in California; one in West Virginia; and one in 
Ohio. The rate of growth is indicated by an increase of fifteen 
lodges in Maryland in the next ensuing nine months, and of eighty- 



I 



GUARANTYISM — SECRET SOCIETIES. 271 

eight in Pennsylvania in the same time. The number of members 
in Pennsylvania, on the 31st of December, 1869, was thirty-six 
thousand and ninety-three, or one-half of the Order in the United 
States. The revenue of the Pennsylvania Lodges during the year 
was $277,627; the reliefs paid. $60,734— a trifle less than twenty. 
two per cent of the total receipts, thus falling below the proportion 
of the reliefs of the Odd Fellow Order to their total revenue, about 
eleven per cent. But this may very well be accounted for by the 
recency of the organization of the Knights, and their probable less 
liberal allowance to sick members; and the proportionally less 
number of widows and orphans requiring support. The funds on 
hand and invested by the Order in Pennsylvania, at the last-men- 
tioned date, were $183,664; so that they may be regarded as amply 
provided for the contingencies which call for their charities. 

The locality of these beginnings of the Order are found, like 
those of the Odd Fellows after fifty years of progress, nearly con- 
fined to the middle belt of States, or, climatically stated, betweea 
the 38° and 42° of north latitude. 

The qualifications required in candidates for initiation are: they 
must be white males, over twenty-one and under fifty years of age, 
of good moral character, with all their parts, healthy, 'sound, and 
free from any mental or bodily infirmity, able and competent to earn 
the means necessary for the support of themselves and families, and 
a belief in the Supreme Creator and Preserver of the Universe. 
The initiation fee, not less than $5.00; weekly dues not less than 
ten cents per week, with an assessment for the funeral fund; the 
amounts of each, subject to the decision of the several subordinate 
lodges, at any rates above these minimums prescribed by the Grand 
Lodge of the State. A probationary period previous to vesting the 
right to claim benefits, is imposed, and benefits are refused to 
members disabled by infirmities previous to admission, and for any 
disability originating from intemperance, and vicious or immoral 
conduct. The minimum fixed for funeral expenses of members is 
$30. The support of widows and orphans is obligatory upon the 
subordinate lodges, but the amount of appropriation is left, as it 
must be, to the discretion of the particular lodge to which the de- 
ceased member, through whom they claim, belonged. The average 
cost of all the benefits provided and secured to the members seems, 
from the data afforded by the statistics of the Order in Pennsylva- 



272 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

nia, to fall under the sum of eight dollars per annum, exclusive of 
the initiation fee, which is paid but once, with a trifling addition 
for two or three degrees afterwards conferred. The whole of these 
degree expenses being less than ten dollars. Suspension is inflicted 
for failure to pay dues, and for minor ofi"enses against the rules and 
requirements of the Order. Fine, suspension, or expulsion, is the 
penalty for offenses against the corporate laws, for frauds, drunkenness, 
and immoral or criminal conduct of any kind, but the Order is more 
chary of its penal records than the Odd Fellows. They make no re- 
port of their expulsions, either of the number, names of offenders, 
or of their misdemeanors. In the report of the Grand Lodge of 
Pennsylvania for the term ending June 30, 1869, the initiations 
reported are 6,779; the suspensions 1,507; and the deaths 9G; to- 
gether, 1,603. 

Nearly twenty of these lodges use the German language in their 
''work" or in the conduct of their lodge business. Almost all of 
these are situated in Philadelphia, and are, probably, natives of 
Germany. 

The actual condition and the prospects of this Order cannot be 
confidently inferred from the statistics given to the public ; but if 
not among the forces they are certainly one of the signs of the 
times. They utterly exclude women and colored men from their 
association, and they are remarkable among their class of associa- 
tions for embracing immigrant residents, who yet use a foreign 
language in their proceedings. Their rules do not require citizen- 
ship. 

The Temperance Reform had its beginnings in the United States — 
it has had several revivals and beginnings in various organized 
forms. Its history may be thus briefly stated : New York organized 
the first temperance society in 1808. The first in Great Britain 
was started in 1829. In 1831 the first Congressional society was 
formed in Washington City. Before this date a great number of 
local societies were formed throughout the country. A very gen- 
eral movement in all our communities prevailed about the year 
1830, and all the auxiliaries of propagandism were vigorously em- 
ployed with apparently great success. In 1840-1-2 the Pteformed 
Drunkards', originating in Baltimore, awakened a general revival; 
signers to the total abstinence pledge were added until of both sexes 
and of all ages they numbered millions. The multitudes, however, 



GUARANTYISM — SECRET SOCIETIES. 273 

had no common bond of union, except that of their voluntary obli- 
gation to practice abstinence from the use of all inebriating drinks, 
and the common effort of the discipleship to propagate reform by 
oral and printed appeals, and with very great unanimity, an endeavor 
to check, or prevent, the use of intoxicating liquors, by legislation 
in restraint or prevention of the retail trade in intoxicating drinks. 
Of weekly and monthly periodicals, in newspaper and pamphlet 
forms, there have been as many as thirty-five or forty in existence 
at a time, and nearly all the time, within the last thirty-five or forty 
years. The tracts and handbooks devoted to the same service have, 
perhaps, not been exceeded in quantity by the like publications of 
any one religious denomination in the country; and, out of the 
general movement has grown a general advocacy of the cause in all 
the pulpits, and a constant support by the secular press. As an ad- 
vance step in the same direction there are more than half a dozen, 
perhaps twice as many, inebriate asylums in the nation, established 
for the cure of the disease of drunkenness, and all of them reason- 
ably successful in effecting their intention. 

Simply as a voluntary endeavor by a host of earnest men and 
women, in every rank of life, for the promotion of a great, and 
greatly needed, social reform, the general movement is a grand indi- 
cation of the distinguishing character of the century in helpfulness 
of associated benevolence. About thirty years ago, the felt necessity 
for a closer tie among the subjects and agents of this reformatory 
work, and a greater efl&ciency, and better direction, of its agencies, 
put vast numbers upon the formation of " Orders" after the type of 
Masonry and Odd Fellowship, in the hope of strengthening the 
bonds and securing, as well as extending, the success of the cause. 

The Order styled the Sons of Temperance was, I believe, a 
little the earliest of these. It was instituted in the year 1842, and 
as early as 1845 availed itself of degrees, honors, paraphernalia, 
secret signs, and whatever of such fascinations as could be com- 
manded for propagation and permanency. They added to it the 
protective and remedial features of the common type of " Beneficial 
Societies," by which an allowance was provided for sickness of the 
members, for their burial expenses, and for the charities required by 
widows and orphans. 

From their official reports we gather these prominent points in 
the history of the Order : after the model of the United States 



274 QUESTIONS OP THE DAY. 

Government the jurisdiction of the Order — with organizations con- 
forming — is divided into subordinate, grand, and national divisions. 
A grand division in general, embraces the territory of a State. As 
early as 1847 they had twenty-two grand divisions in the United 
States and Canada, and thirteen hundred subordinate divisions, 
embracing one hundred thousand members. In the twelve years 
1848-59 they initiated an average of sixty-three thousand per 
annum, and had a revenue of about ^428,000; out of which they 
paid $118,000 yearly in benefits to members and their families. 
This amount is twenty-eight per cent of the total receipts; in this 
respect falling very little short of the charities of the Odd Fellows. 
The total receipts of all the subordinate divisions in these twelve 
years amounted to $5,084,477, which exceeds the total receipts of 
the American Bible Society, in the same time, a full million of 
dollars. 

The reliefs paid by the Order, as by other societies of kindred 
character, were deteruiiued by the members of the particular 
divisions to which they belonged, but may be stated, accurately 
enough, at about as much for a week's sickness as the annual tax 
upon the members, along with whatever might result to the family 
at death. The average mortality in years quite recent has been 
one-half of one per cent of the membership. The violations of the 
pledge have been a little over ten per cent of the total members per 
annum, and the members annually expelled were nearly twenty-four 
per cent of the number admitted. 

The prosperity of the earlier half of the Order's past lifetime, 
seems to have greatly declined in the last twelve years. The receipts 
which in the former period were about $425,000 per annum, have 
fallen off to $182,000. The benefits paid have declined from 
$118,000 to $17,000; and the membership does not now exceed 
ninety-seven thousand. This is all that is left of quite a million of 
initiates, claimed by the Order since its first establishment. The 
reduction of the annual benefits to one-tenth of their former amount, 
with a nearly equal number of members, is accounted for by the fact 
that the beneficial provision has been dropped from the constitutions 
of perhaps nine-tenths of the subordinate divisions; and the actual 
diminution of their numbers, is accounted for, by themselves, by a 
great absorption of the material of recruitment by other societies 
and Orders that have arisen in the mean time. In the beuinnins; of 



GUARANTYISM — SECRET SOCIETIES. 275 

the year 1870, tlieir activity was somewhat revived, and they seem 
to be partaking of the general progress which the principle of total 
abstinence is again experiencing in the country. 

As an organization it has, in a great measure, lost the associate 
principle of health insurance, and has fallen that far out of harmony 
with the spirit of the times. The Order is, indeed, little else than 
a temperance society, held together by the attractions of their 
ceremonial. Women have, within the last four or five years, been 
admitted to equal privileges in the Order. In 1868 they reported 
nearly ten thousand ladies admitted, and forty thousand lady visitors 
to their social assemblies. The Grand Secretary speaks of the ini- 
tiation of women as not only a feasible project, but of great ad- 
vantage to the Order. This feature of their policy had a sort of 
beginning fifteen years ago; but has become an integral part of the 
movement only within two or three of the last years. 

In 1859, when the Order was at the height of its success, its offi- 
cials believed they had put themselves at the head of the temperance 
movement, and expected a future of stability and progress corre- 
sponding to that which they had enjoyed in the past. 

I know not what were all the causes which have disappointed 
this confidence, but I think that a misapprehension of the force of 
the cooperative impulse, at work in the mass of society, is a suffi- 
cient explanation, without any other. There may, there must, have 
been many untoward influences besides ; but without provision for 
this demand, no excellence of aim or of organization would have 
availed ; and with it, all other imperfections would have been 
greatly lessened in effect, and amended in fact. The mutual insur- 
ance principle, in decided force, would have taken care of all the 
concomitants of the associations. Mere Temperance Societies have 
again and again failed to perpetuate themselves. They have not 
the religious bond of unity, and, without the ties of material 
interest, they die out as organizations as soon as the revival fervor 
abates. Besides, the " sons " were too slow in securing the correct- 
ive and inspiring aid of the " daughters" of temperance. 

The jurisdiction of the National Division embraces the British 
American Provinces. A National Division was established in 1868 
in Australia; and the United Kingdom of G-reat Britain has one 
of its own. 

This society has a propagation fund, and keeps a lecturer in the 



276 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

field. It has its own newspaper organs, also, and seems determined 
to work its machinery vigorously; but it needs reconstruction, or, 
what will answer just as well, the absorption of its active elements 
in other Orders which have grown out of it, and, for that reason, 
outgrown it. 

The societies, based upon the Temperance pledge, or embracing 
it as a condition and a duty of membership, are so numerous that 
their statistics are not attainable with tolerable precision. Nearly 
all of them which are offshoots of the Order of the " sons " have 
the beneficial provision in their constitutions. The names of a few 
of these several "Orders" which, I believe, are the most numerous 
in membership and prosperous in their achievements and prospects, 
will give a hint of their spread and prevalence. There are of this 
class such as: The Temple of Honor; The Temple of Honor and 
Temperance ; Good Templars ; Ancient Order of Grood Fellows, and 
Good Samaritans. 

There are, besides these, many other " Orders " whose principal 
aim is provision for ill health, and burial benefits. -A few of their 
names will serve to indicate the prevailing spirit of association : 
The Social Friends; Sons and Daughters of Arcanum Ark; Inde- 
pendent Daughters of the Union ; Anglo-American Beneficial So- 
ciety ; Ancient Order of Female Druids; Mount Moriah Temple of 
the Masonic Tie; Annunciation Female Beneficial Society, and a 
host, besides, of the like general character.* Of their numbers, 

•■-I am imlebtcd to Mr. Thomas M. Coleman, of the Led<jer, for the following 
list of Secret Orders in Philadeliihia, whose existence is known to him, and in a 
large majority of which he is himself a member: Improved Order of Free Sons 
of Israel, Beneficial — Knights of Helcium Arma — Knights of Friendship — 
Knights of Honor — Knights Templar — Ancient York Masons — Ancient Order of 
Good Fellows —Order of Ileptasophs, or Seven Wise JJcn — Sons and Daughters 
of Arcanum Ark — Sons and Daughters of America — Order of Masonic Ladies — 
Daughters of Temperance — Daughters of Samaria — Independent Order of Good 
Samaritans, both sexes and colors — Order of Progress, loth sexes — United Order 
of American Mechanics — American Protestant Association — Brotherhood of the 
Union — Improved Order of lied Men — Independent Order of Red Men. — Sons 
of Temperance, loth sexes — Temple of Honor and Temperance — Cadets of Tem- 
perance — Independent Order of Cadets of Honor and Temperance, both sexes — 
United Order of Sacred Temple of Liberty, both sexes — Knights of Pythias — In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows — Encampment of Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows — Order of Female Druids — Association of Independent Order of P — , 
female — Temperance Beneficial Association — Independent Order of Good Tem- 



GUARANTYISM — SECRET SOCIETIES. 277 

resources, and differences of constitutional provisions and adminis- 
tration, it is impossible to obtain complete reports. Like the forty 
or fifty religious sects of a great city, they have shades of differ- 
ence in doctrine and ritual, with no common centre of registration, 
and the most active in the membership of either are not able to 
give a census of all. 

Some peculiarities of one of the societies of very recent origin, 
and unusually rapid growth, deserve special notice — the Order of 
United American Mechanics. The constitution declares the pur- 
pose of the Order to be protection against " foreign competition 
and foreign combination;" to promote the interests, elevate the 
character, and secure the happiness of the working men and me- 
chanics of this country. In particulars, the objects of the Order 
are declared to be — " 1st. To assist each other in obtaining employ- 
ment; 2d. To encourage each other in business; 3d. To establish a 
sick and funeral fund; 4th. To establish a fund for th.e relief of 
widows and orphans of deceased members ; 5th. To aid members 
who, through Providence, may have become incapacitated from fol- 
lowing their usual avocation, by obtaining situations suitable to 
their afflictions." The members must be natives of the United 
States. Relief in sickness is refused when it results from intem- 
perance, or other immorality. Suspension or expulsion is the 
penalty for intemperance, and for gambling. In 1869 the num- 
ber of members in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Mary- 
land, and Ohio, was twenty-one thousand, of which Pennsylvania 
had eighty-four and one-half per cent. The total increase of the 
year was twenty-five per cent upon the membership of 1868; and 
the increase of 1870 was very greatly more rapid. With respect to 
its financial condition, the same facts hold that we have observed in 
all other societies which provide for the relief of sickness of the 
members, funeral expenses, and allowances to widows and children. 

The 0. U. A. M. in 1869 were taxed in benevolences of this 
kind with no more than twenty-eight per cent of their receipts in the 
year. The receipts of the widow and orphan fund were above 

plars — Junior Order of United American Mechanics — True Temple of Honor — 
Tlie Mystic Band of Brothers — Patriotic Order of Liberty. 

That this list, made by the most competent Reporter of the Secret Societies in 
Philadelphia, does not embrace the whole of them, is certain, which shows how 
numerous and various they really are. 



278 QUESTIONS OP THE DAY. 

§(3^000 — the expenditure less than $3,000. The balanog in this 
fund was then 823,000. The councils of Pennsylvania in the year 
paid out, total reliefs, $33,622, about two dollars, average, per head 
of the membership, — the average receipts from the members being 
$7.76 for the year. At so slight an expense the society is able, 
and more than able, to meet the assurances it gives. The death 
rate of the year was only seven-tenths of one per cent. 

The Order has di Junior branch, temperance being a prominent 
feature of their constitution. In 1869 they had seventy councils 
in Pennsylvania. They meet weekly ; attendance reported to be 
good. Their exercises are educational in the conduct of meetings 
and of debates. The juniors must not be under sixteen years of 
age. The head of the Order says these junior societies are to the 
parent Order what Sunday-schools are to the churches. 

The Order excludes negroes, foreigners, and women from mem- 
bership. As a counterbalance, in part, there are quite a number of 
Mechanic Councils in the country to which none but Germans, or 
sons of Germans, are admitted. 

These secret societies differ from the churches in this, that they 
are wonderfully interlocked, and generally hold to each other the 
most harmonious relations. Many persons belong to several of 
them at the same time, and are entitled to reliefs from all that they 
belong to. It is not an unusual thing to see obituary notices in 
our cheapest daily papers, in which two, three, four, or even six or 
eight secret orders are notified of the funeral. These notices 
always indicate very plainly that the subjects belong to the class in 
the community which specially needs the reliefs which they have so 
providently secured ; such persons, as for the most part must, 
under the disabilities of sickness and the bereavements of death, 
fall into the " supported class" if they have not wisely put them- 
selves into the provident class by fair purchase of an insurance 
against the casualties of life. One man assured the writer that he 
belonged to twenty-three societies, and carried all their passwords 
in his memory. He must have been paying seventy five to one hun- 
dred dollars a year for the chance of an equal allowance for every 
weeh of sickness with a funeral allowance to his family from each of 
the Orders of which he was a member. It i.';- probable that, as a 
rule, the people, in very moderate circumstances, who adopt this 
kind of insurance provision, fortify themselves with the rights and 



GUARANTYISM — SECRET SOCIETIES. 279 

claims of two or three societies, so tliat for a premium of say 
fifteen dollars a year, paid ia monthly installments, they are entitled 
to draw three reliefs, amounting to as much per week, and three 
funeral benefits to the use of their families, which may amount to 
a hundred or a hundred and fifty dollars. 

The most significant feature of this great movement among the 
populace is, that it prevails just in the right regions and grades of 
pecuniary condition — most general just where it is most needed. 
For example, upon inquiry, I have had the one answer from house- 
keepers^ that in their opinion all the better class of colored female 
domestics of the city belong to one, two, or three beneficial 
societies. 

One of the most observant and best informed among the leaders 
of this popular movement expressed this drift of the common people 
of the time, by saying, as a summary of his own observations : 
''Orders are the Order of the day." "Indeed," he remarked, "if 
you will worm your way through the popular promenade of a holiday, 
when crowds are taking their exercise and airing you may be as- 
sured that a great majority of the mass hold membership in relief 
societies." 

A number of the " Orders," here spoken of, admit women to 
full membership; and this seems to be the tendency of the most 
prosperous among them. Many others have established branch or 
side degrees, to which women are adiiiitted; some have gone no 
further than establishing social degrees, which carry no " benefits" 
with them, but allow womeu to contribute to and enjoy the open 
festivals and convivialities of the Order. A few organizations, with 
very fair prospects, make women eligible to membership and to the 
offices of the Order, even to that of the chaplaincy. The greater and 
older, and as yet, more powerful of the secret societies, have done 
little for women, except by their charities proper. But even with 
them the beginning of the end is getting a footing, and the assured 
promise is, that on the great common ground of mutual assurance, 
the long rejected sex vriil promptly be admitted to an equality of 
right, coextensive with its equality of need. The prejudice of color 
is another embarrassment to the practice of that universal benevo- 
lence which all the '■ Orders" profess. This feeling deprives the 
people of African descent, in the United States, of the great assist- 
ance which a broader •liberality would afi'ord them, but it has the 



280 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

effect of driving them upon self-help, and, to their credit, it must be 
said, that among them there are very fair imitations of their white 
exemphu'S in every sort of associative organizations. They, too, have 
their " Orders" of the upper ckiss, and of all grades from the 
aristocratic brotherhoods down to the simplest and least pre- 
tentious. Of the humbler grades they are, in proportion to ways 
and means, actually in advance of the corresponding classes of white 
people. They are organizing in the ratio of their need, and rela- 
tively, this is generally greater, for all reasons, than in the parallel 
ranks of the dominant race. 

Of one Temperance Beneficial Order we have this report : The 
Good Samaritans, organized in the year 1847, had a year or two 
since twenty-two thousand members. It claims to be the first of all 
the Temperance Orders to admit women and colored people to full 
membership. How will these things be in the millennial " Order?" 
That is, how are they in the Divine Order ? In the mean time, the 
progressives must wait, and the conservatives may console them- 
selves with the certainty that no change will come until society is 
ready for it, and then, it will hurt nobody. 

The attention of the writer was first drawn to the astonishins: 
number and activity of the secret societies of the day, by noticing as 
often as two or three times a week, in one of our morning papers 
having a circulation of above fifty thousand copies, from ten to 
twenty calls for their meetings. AVhoever will any day examine 
these notices of society meetings, and the reference to society mem- 
bership in the obituary column of the most popular papers, will be 
convinced that " Orders are the Order of the day," and will see 
abundant reason for concluding such an examination with the 
conviction that, indeed, the present is the age of guarantyism, and 
that the associative movement is tlie distinguishing feature of the 
time. 



CHAPTER XX. 

COOPERATION — SURVEY OF THE, FIELD. 

Cooperation' — Survey of the field: Three classes of guaranty associations — those 
which organize the social charities — those which economize the expenses of 
subsistence — those which equitably divide the profits of production. — Selfhood 
made social by expansion of its aims. — A nation, a loose political association. — 
Organization vitalizes its constituents.— Difference between money lendinf, at 
interest, and profits of capital invested in production. — Slavery and wages. — 
Labor at wages and money at interest, both hirelings. — Interest of money. — 
Notions need correction. — Stages in history of business development. — Cooper- 
ative stores. — Elimination of middle-men. — Merchant service, uses and abuses, 
— Merchants of old. — The merchant a "producer." — Monopoly of common 
•carriers. — Monopoly of large capital. — Domination of wealth. — Any remedy? — 
Political power grew in the past as wealth does now, and worked its own cure. 
— Resistance to domination of wealth, commenced. — Revolt of philanthropy. — 
Historic parallel. — The remedy grows with and outgrows the evil. — Current 
products of industry immensely greater than accumulated capital. — Labor's de- 
pendence upon capital in modern production. — Freedom arises in bondage. — 
Education by labor, and of the laborer. — The baby giant not yet weaned or 
named. — Trade unions and strikes correspond to the insurrections from Wat 
Tyler till the French Revolution. — Laws of order working in disorder. — Cooper- 
ation, the lawful marriage of capital and labor. 

Having now done what we could in the presentment and dis- 
cussion of that class of voluntary associations which make provision 
for relief of the casualties which affect health and life, with the 
necessarily incident discipline exercised over the public morals of 
the membership, the drift of our inquiries leads us, next, to con- 
sider the associative enterprises which look specially to the business 
interests of the people engaged in them. A general classification of 
the associations which we include under the term guarantyism, may 
help to a clearer apprehension of their characters and differences. 
They may be distinguished sufficiently well as of three kinds; Isfc, 
those which organize the social charities; 2d, those which secure 
economy in the expenses of subsistence ; 3d, those which intend 
an equitable division of the profits of productive industry : all these 
19 281 



282 QUESTIONS or the day. 

have a commuuity of risks and benefits as their conditions of 
association. The first class we have treated in the preceding 
chapter. They are all, in the points with which we are here con- 
cerned, characterized by their tendency to convert the charities of 
social life into equitable claims, held by right of proportionate 
contributions by the beneficiaries, and by giving a new nature to 
the acquisitiveness of individualism ; changing it substantially into 
benevolence when trained into the service of corporate aims and 
ends. 

We have spoken of the two springs of societary action, the 
material and the spiritual. In the class of relief societies, both these 
motor forces are active in the results, no matter which prevails in 
the purpose of the agents, or which is wholly wanting in the im- 
pulse. In all cases the pecuniary benefit is secured, and may be 
enjoyed even by the man whose social afi'ections are not at all en- 
gaged. The providence which his selfhood prompted is, by the 
corporate direction given to its accumulations, transubstantiated 
into charity in action, and a private vice is thus transformed into a 
social virtue. Association, we have seen, vindicates its material 
policy by ample success in every well-managed organization. They 
all grow rich relatively to their required expenditures. The in- 
vested property and reserved funds grow always more rapidly than 
the numbers and wants of the claimants. Just as the accumulated 
wealth of every advancing nation in the world grows much more 
rapidly than its population ; and the latter for the like reason as the 
former : a nation is a society loosely combined in its methods of 
accumulation, but closely united in the general and ultimate divi- 
dends of the common industry. 

The consideration of those two classes of associations which have 
the savings and profits of business for their respective objects, 
and which intend and endeavor a change in the economic order of 
trade and production, requires such a preliminary examination of the 
existing order of the business system as may discover the promise of 
their coming, and the prophecy of their success, in the signs of the 
times, as the shadows of the dawn herald the coming of day. 

Money, the ripened fruit, and embodiment of the energies of in- 
dustry, is naturally earliest in availing itself of the productive force 
of association. All institutions designed for the investment of 
savings, for safe-keeping and accumulation, are of this class. Con- 



COOPERATION — SUBJECTS AND FORCES. 283 

spicuous examples are banks of deposit, discount, and circulation, so 
far as their capital is held in partnership. All money-making 
corporations belong to it, whether they be concerned with public 
improvements, such as railroads, canals, telegraph lines, or manu- 
factories, worked by partners, who participate in the expenses, 
losses, and profits ; Savings banks are in the same category, and so 
are all kinds of insurance companies. They are all marked by one 
common character — association of capital ; and they all have the 
force of the material and moral spring combined in their results. 
It may sound oddly to ascribe anything of moral or social to money- 
making corporations, that are proverbially destitute of soul — that in 
law are only artificial persons — that cannot die or go to judgment, 
in the sense that natural persons do and must; but, under that 
government which " from seeming evil still educes good," and 
makes the evil of the world answer the ends of a wise purpose that 
must ultimately triumph, and will not be baffled for want of either 
wisdom or power, in the administration of disorder — that makes 
martyrdom a means of fresh vitality, and death and hell efl&cient 
servants of life and order — why may not money banks, as well as 
parsimony, avarice, and all the forms of a blind acquisitiveness, in 
all other shapes and apparatus of their activity, by the simple con- 
version of their selfishness of motive into social operation in their 
effects, be made beneficent, and so, moral and spiritual, too, in their 
service ? Association, with the aim of accumulation, is the regen- 
erating instinct of capital ; and equitable divisions of the product, 
are the good works of these incorporated bodies, into which a spirit 
enters in lieu of the lacking human soul, just as the lightning of 
heaven informs and vitalizes a rubbish of zinc and copper scraps in 
orderly organization. Organism springs to life, whatever be the 
material in the structure, provided only the material be capable of 
the vitalizing influx. The business brotherhood of men, takes 
form earliest in capital, for the " dried fruits" of labor have 
none of the repugnances, the incompatibilities, the incapacities of 
the live laborer ; to whom the beneflts of a corresponding coopera- 
tion cannot come till he is fit, and to whom it will come in the degree 
of his fitness. Labdr in its savage, its barbarous, and, even in its 
early civilized phases, either consumes all its produce, or hands 
over the surplus to organized capital — dead to its producer, but 



284 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

witli a germ of growth in it to the cultivator, who makes it yield 
some thirty, some sixty, some au hundredfold. 

Savings banks and similar institutions, under other names; and life, 
fire, and marine insurances, having either accumulation of profits to 
the stockholders, division of profits among all the contributors or in- 
sured persons, or only indemnity against losses, ought to be separa- 
ted in classification by this rule : are the investors only money-lenders 
in efi"ect, as all those are who make their deposits at a stipulated rate 
of interest ; or, are they partners in the losses, expenses and profits ? 
The distinction is a broad one. The lender of savings parts with 
the great agent of production. The borrower has its use and service 
to the utmost of its capacity. He is working his credit as capital; he 
puts credit into stock, and makes other people's capital work for 
him at lower rent, wages, or interest than it earns for him. The 
mere lender of savings works for other people's capital, and with 
it, for them, at a loss of some of the profit, and a greater loss 
of development and power in himself. The wages system is 
certainly a grand advance upon the slave system, for it is free in its 
spirit, and may be free in action under favoring circumstances. It 
difi"ers from the state of being property, sold and bought, by the 
circumstance that wages means the sale of whatever is salable of 
the man hy himself, and the buyer is another party with interests 
that may be either adverse or favorable. 

The self-employed man, like money employed by the owner, 
is never on sale, either for wages or interest. Interest is the wages 
of money which is not in the active service of its owner. His 
money is a hireling. The laborer, with his little deposit in a 
moneyed institution, is a hireling in person, and his property is a 
hireling in use, just as he himself is. 

Just here lies the difi"erence between a savings bank and a build- 
ing and loan association : the deposits in the latter work to their 
utmost for the depositor, who is both lender and borrower. In the 
former he is only a lender, and that necessarily, at a rate of interest 
less by the expenses of the institution, and the difi"erence of interest 
rate which makes up the profits of the institution. These profits 
are really very large — so large that they aotually do refund the 
entire investment in building associations in about eleven years, or 
in about the time that money at six per cent doubles itself at com- 
pound interest, with the solid practical efi"oct of making a man the 



COOPERATION — SUBJECTS AND FORCES. 285 

owner of the building Tie occupies after paying only ttie equivalent 
of its rent for about a dozen years. 

The same principle rules all business engagements in which the 
man is his own employer, either jointly or severally — either in 
association or with a sufficient capital of his own to carry on his 
business and hire others to do its work. 

The science of labor has not been so devised as to command a 
general understanding and acceptance, but its theory is clearly 
capable of logical statement. 

Many of the prevalent opinions and partial judgments'concern- 
ing the questions involved need correction for the vindication of 
fundamental principles. 

In the matter of interest, for instance, it is commonly felt to 
eat like a canker into the means of the borrower. It is known to 
be, according to its rates, one of the most potent forces ruling pro- 
duction. Its low rate in Europe against double or treble its rate in 
the United States employed in like productions, and which compete 
in the same markets, is enough of itself to settle the fortunes of 
the rival enterprises. It is known, moreover, that money-lenders, 
upon a large capital of money and credit, make larger accumula- 
tions than any other industry can command ; and it may be hastily 
inferred that money, by force of its rent or interest, makes larger 
gains than labor and skill employed in the production of commodi- 
ties. There is confusion in the conclusions thus drawn from 
premises individually true enough in themselves, but not in their 
relations and mixed results. 

The lender of large sums at short intervals has compound interest 
upon them, and the current yield is large in amount. The lender 
of very small sums may have his interest compounded, indeed, and, 
like the greater capitalist, has all his time on his hands for making 
other gains. But the one has commanding means for opportune 
operations in the markets; the other may sink all his in a month's 
sickness. The one reserves them for opportune employment; the 
other lays them up idle for the very reason that they must not 
be used. 

Whoever has wealth enough to maintain him for twenty years 
may do nothing but receive his interest at five per cent per annum, 
and he is provided for his lifetime, and at the end of it has his 
capital intact and undiminished. The difference between a consid- 



286 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

erable and sufficient surplus, and the small savings that will not 
more than cover contingencies, is world-wide. To the one it is 
an implement, a machinery of large production, substantially with- 
out risk ; to the other, it is a crutch, to be used only when he breaks 
a leir ; or a reserve, to be consumed when his daily bread fails with 
his working strength. 

In the matter of the support afforded by interest, it is true that 
only too rnuch capital is plenti/, and, that too little puts the owner 
upon looking for the best way of making his little useful in active 
service, rather than in waiting for accidental need. 

The policy of business, like other things, has its growth and 
successive stages of development. First, the capital consisting of 
surplus gets organized ; afterwards, the social charities, beginning 
with public almsgiving; then to insurance of property against 
risks ; next, provision for " rainy days," with a slowly growing 
mutual fund for relief against sickness and the privations that 
follow death — all these are a sort of insurances ; but they all take, 
in their earlier stage, the shapes that give their profit over and 
above the provision required, to the capitalists, as distinct from the 
contributors ; they all have, indeed, the germinal power of associa- 
tion in them, gradually unfolding; some of them yielding their 
proper fruits to the cultivator ; some of them, reserving largely of 
those fruits from his grasp, and leaving little of the residuary 
for the equitable owner. At a still later stage the advance is from 
the blade of promise toward the corn, with the assurance of the 
full corn in the ear to the use of the husbandman, who having sown 
his own seed in his own ground, reaps the whole harvest that his 
labor yields. 

This brings us, in the growth of guarantyism, to cooperative 
stores, as that system of provision for current consumption is called, 
which is not yet self-employing, but is so far self-helping that it is 
self-supplying, so far, at least, as the elimination of middle-men, 
merchimts, hucksters, and mere exchangers, can be dispensed with, 
and with relief, in proportion, from their support, from their frauds 
and their gains. 

These intermediate exchangers are interested to put as great a 
distance and difference of place and of price between production 
and consumption as they can. This is their inherent vice. They, 
as a distinct order of industrials, are necessary and serviceable in 



COOPERATION — SUBJECTS AND FORGES. 287 

the degree tliat they are indispensable, and, no further. In all 
beyond this, they are mischievous. How they have thriven in their 
department of the work that life demands ! Twenty-five hundred 
years ago^ the merchants of Tyre were described as " Princes, and 
her traffickers as the honorable of the earth." Later, upon equally 
sacred authority, those of a prophetic Babylon are said to be " the 
great men of the earth ;" and, again, the people of that symbolic city 
are doomed to destruction, for this reason, among others, that, " the 
merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her 
delicacies." And yet again they figure in the threatened catastrophe as 
deeply involved in the ruin which their agency wrought : " The mer- 
chants which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off, for the fear 
of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, alas, alas ! that great 
city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and 
decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls ! For in one hour 
so great riches is come to naught. And every ship-master, and all 
the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, 
stood afar off, and cried, when they saw the smoke of her burning." 
It seems, however, that these princes and great men of the earth 
were, by professional instinct, very free traders, indeed, for, besides 
the stuffs of the artisan, and the products of the agriculturist, 
crowding the list of their goods like a ship's manifest of our own 
day, they also traded '^ in slaves, and the souls of men," whatever 
the last item may mean that can have any application to the busi- 
ness of our modern sea-ports, which, however, the whole invoice' 
seems to have in its purview. 

That the merchant is a necessary intermediate — a producer in 
fact — and as much so, in his way as the miner, the transporter, or 
any other agent or invention that saves time and overcomes space, 
is clear enough. By his service the perfection of all production is 
made attainable, for by the division of labor its products are im- 
proved and multiplied. This makes the exchanger a necessity to 
all the ends of useful industry ; and, while conformed to his func- 
tion, and restrained to his proper use in the world's business, it is 
idle and unmeaning to class hira as a non-producer, or in any sense 
an impediment or a parasite. But he is intermediate between the 
producer and consumer, and by perversion of his office he becomes 
an obstacle in commerce, and a burden upon the parties which he 
should serve. It is to the necessity for intervention that he owes 



288 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

his place in the world's required exchanges; and he finds his 
interest and his temptations of interest, in increasing the dis- 
tance and cost that can be put between the parties to the com- 
merce which he conducts. Roads, carriages, ships, which econo- 
mize time and abridge the inconvenience of space, can be used to 
counteract their true intention. They are instruments of associa- 
tion in themselves, but they are capable of multiplying the interme- 
diate agencies of commerce, and increasing the dependency of the 
parties which they should liberate. The better these instruments 
are the more they take the conditious of monopolies. The larger 
the number of persons they are made capable of serving, and the 
greater the commerce they can move, the further they are removed 
by their value from the control, and by their management, from the 
best service of the community. It is essential to the railroad that its 
owners shall have the exclusive right of way. No one but its man- 
agers can put a carriage upon it. No outside traveler or trafficker 
can compete with its facilities of transportation. It has exclusive 
privileges. Even the natural highways and the common roads and 
rivers may be monopolized by capitalists, and the sei'vants of the 
public, within certain limits, become its masters in the matter of 
travel and transportation. Competition, in most other branches of 
industry, the regulator of charges, is easily defeated of its power itl 
transportation, and, accordingly, as we know, rivalry here always 
fails. Opposition omnibuses on our city streets cannot hold out 
in their struggles half a year. They are either underworked to ex- 
haustion, or, bought up, if that proves the cheaper way to the 
monopolist lines. Railroads, like city water-works, forbid all at- 
tempts at limitation of their prices by exclusive occupation of the 
route, and of the agents of transit. A gas company once in posses- 
sion of the ground is in position to defy all resistance. It can and 
does regulate its prices by the balance of its own interests. The 
rivers are free in their course. They are not private property; but 
their use is easily monopolized by commanding capital. Common 
carriers upon their waters are run off the track, as omnibuses are 
in our streets. The heaviest capital soon starves out its competi- 
tors or buys them up ; and steamboats settle into lines, and have 
the privilege without charters, by virtue of the wealth that needs no 
odds in the struggles of competition. Passenger lines in ocean navi- 
gation fall within the same influences, and are controlled in the 



COOPERATION — SUBJECTS AND FORCES. 289 

same way. Common carriers everywhere soon get sole possession, 
and the occupancy of the world's highways, by land and water alike, 
may be treated practically as private property. Neither the breadth 
of mountain or prairie, of river or ocean, with all the room they 
give, can secure the free practicable use of their capabilities to any, 
against companies which have the means of occupying and com- 
manding their passage ways. Tracks over land, and routes over 
seas, are free, indeed, to private carriages and to vessels of every 
kind for whomsoever can bear the cost of their own conveyance 
and commerce in them ; but no one can become a common carrier. 
or take any part in that branch of the mercantile function, in the 
face of a heavier capital that would monopolize it. 

Doubtless, such monopolies must address the interest of the com- 
munity in securing its custom, but they need go no further in 
accommodating the public then cheapening their service in the 
smallest degree that will secure their own ends. Even while carry- 
ing goods and passengers for nothing, they are only aiming at 
the monopoly of the route, and intending to replace the losses of 
the strife when they shall be in condition to make their own terms. 
Roads that divide business often reduce fares and freights for the 
purpose of selling out on their own terms to their rivals. Charters 
for roads that threaten competition are obtained to be sold with the 
same view, and the protection of competition is thus constantly 
defeated. In a word, transportation companies and corporations are 
fast becoming the masters of commerce, under the system of 
modern improvement in its methods ; just as wars are decided by 
the power of wealth in providing their instruments and engines. 
The dominion has passed from the lords of blood to the lords of 
gold, as the aristocracy is dominated by the millocracy of England. 
Is there no remedy for the inevitable tendency of the age in this 
direction ? Was there no remedy for the civil despotism that grew 
step by step with all civilized progress, a few centuries ago ? The 
common people's strength only enhanced the disparity of power in 
their masters — while it was growing, but had not yet grown to self- 
assertion and self-defense. Grovernments that did not consult or 
regard the public interests, nevertheless, did depend upon the very 
power which they trained into their service. The basis forces had 
some room left to growj not much, but still enough for their own 
enhancement. Tyranny was deluded into increased oppression by in- 



290 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

creased aggraudisement through the growing worth and wealth of 
its subjects; but, at last the embryo life burst into independence by- 
force of just those powers which had before aggravated its bondage. 

Is there any parallel of promise in the struggle now going on 
between accumulated wealth and its sources and subjects? Let us 
see — every civilized country in the world is now growing in wealth 
twice or thrice faster than in population. The distributive shares 
of all peoples have greatly increased in the century which we have 
named as the age of guarrantyism. All the means of production 
have been multiplied incalculably, through the aid of machinery or 
the substitution of artificial for natural labor. The people of France 
have thrice the food that they had a hundred years ago, the people 
of England have thirty times the cotton cloth; and capital in the 
hands of the wealthy class of both countries is increased by tale of 
coin and credit money tenfold, with an efficiency in production multi- 
plied ten times again, as against the mass without property other 
than labor-power and skill. The power of wealth in the world's 
work now is as a hundred against one in the times when the plough, 
the loom, and the anvil were driven solely by hand-power — a hun- 
dred to one in an array of antagonism, and growing, as all societary 
forces are growing now, with accelerated rapidity. Considered only 
in their past and present potencies, it is not at all to be wondered 
that philanthropy has been for a century or two devising radical 
revolutions in the policy of distributing the wealth which labor and 
capital jointly produce. 

Communism, St. Simonism, Fourierism, Shakerism, and many 
other forms of reorganization, or social reconstruction, sometimes 
with, sometimes without, the religious sentiment of brotherhood 
incorporated, have arisen and gone into abortive endeavor, from no 
other conviction and impulse than the demonstration of the ever- 
growing disparity of power between wealth and labor. These recon- 
structive efforts are exactly the counterparts of those other blind 
struggles of the levelers of political and civil power, which began 
with Wat Tyler and ended in the primal days of the French 
Revolution. Absolute democracy in civil and social polity, and 
communism of property, are cousins-german in reform, and each is 
grounded in the correlative maxims — " power is always stealing from 
the many to the few." " Policy is ever making the rich richer and 
the poor poorer." 



COOPERATION — SUBJECTS AND FORCES. 291 

Neither of these proverbs of the people is true, nor ever was 
true. The few, indeed, grew, and are yet growing, more powerful; 
but the many are growing more rapidly, only they have not yet got 
a commanding hold of the machinery of civil government. The 
rich are being made richer, vastly richer. It is no longer a figure 
of speech to call a merchant, in goods or money, a millionaire. We 
have them in hundreds; men in England and America, of whom a 
dozen or two could pay off those vast national debts, which nobody, 
fifty years ago, believed the whole nation could ever pay. David 
Hume said, in 1776, that the national debt of England, then not 
one-third of its present amount, was a mortgage on half the wealth 
of the whole nation. Yet there is wealth enough in London or 
Liverpool, or New York, now, to redeem the national debts to the 
last dollar, without spoiling a holiday in either. Yes, the wealth of 
the wealthy has grown fabulously; yet it is as nothing to the 
increase of the aggregate wealth of the millions of men who are 
now doing the world's daily work. Our civil war cost us more than 
five thousand millions; it was all actually contributed day by day 
as it was expended. If all the assets of all the banks of the 
Union, in 1860, had been confiscated; if their capital, real estate, 
coin, and other resources over their liabilities, had been tumbled 
into the Treasury, the sum would not have reached $900,000,000 ; 
yet the two-thirds of the Union paid up six times that amount in 
four years, and were richer than when the first loan was raised. I 
say, all the expenses of the war were actually paid during the 
war; for the national bonds, which we call the national debt, are 
the receipts for it. In the aspect of debt, these bonds are only 
claims for distribution of the expenses borne unequally by indi- 
viduals while the unsettled balances were accumulating. The 
amount of the bonds held abroad, which, in 1865, were as nothing 
to the total expenditure, is the only deduction to be made in esti- 
mating the current contributions of our own people. A little- 
reflection will show how erroneously the wealth of the wealthy is 
commonly contrasted with the accumulations of the people. At 
any county fair now held, there is more money's worth in the 
equipments, the " turn outs," and the apparel and jewelry of the 
visitors, than the whole real and personal property of that county 
would have been rated at seventy, or even fifty, years ago. There 
is more money spent by the industrial populace in travel, amuse- 



292 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

ments, furniture, and dress, than the whole country was worth in 
the very recent time when there was not a daily paper published 
outside of the Atlantic cities. What are the fortunes of the thou- 
sand millionaires of the nation to the massed wealth of the millions 
of the people ! 

We are constantly forgetting this, and so we are foolishly fearing 
the issue ^ and the best men are prone to turn to the devices of 
despair for the remedy of the apparently ever-growing evil; not 
perceiving that the corrective is growing potentially with still 
greater rapidity: just as men's hearts failed within them in that 
other strife of the many against the few, in the age of civil revolu- 
tions, forgetting that the many were the many^ and that every 
failure of open resistance showed the growing strength of the 
resistance which failed — not knowing that success is the outgrowth 
of failures oft repeated, and that men blunder into success as a 
child toddles into pedestrianism, strengthening its limbs and steady- 
ing its steps by every stumble it makes, and gathering new strength 
like AntfBus, every time it touches its mother earth. 

What have we now at work upon the popular welfxre ? On the 
one side, productive industry, so welded to machinery that every 
workman is the hireling of capital, so that to make a pin, which 
will pay cost in the market, you must begin with an outlay of fifty 
thousand dollars; and no man will buy a cotton shirt unless a 
hundred thousand dollars were employed in producing it. All 
forms of industry, which the times permit, require an aggregate of 
capital that no workman of merely ordinary means can at all com- 
mand, either in cash or credit. On the other hand we have, in the 
possession of the unpropertied mass, an amount of skill, without 
which the millionaire's mill cannot turn a wheel, or run a spindle, 
or head a pin. They have, also, an education, acquired in service 
at wages without profits, by which capital has grasped the wonderful 
wealth which the modern methods of production have yielded ; and 
along with this grandest element of all — this new-made force of 
skill — an education of brain in ^.iterature and available science, or 
science applied, which we still call skill. For want of knowing 
what it is in essence and force we have not yet invented a descriptive 
name, or descriptive names, for distinguishing between the art that 
builds a bridge, runs a locomotive engine, manages a stationary one, 
constructs a railroad, or levels a canal. They are all engineers, 



COOPERATION SUBJECTS AND FORCES. 293 

forsooth, though they must understand mineralogy, hydrostatics, 
architecture, geometry, mathematics, mechanics, and half-a-dozen 
other sciences, for either construction, reparation, or superintend- 
ence : very respectable portions of Michael Angelo, Archimede?, Sir 
Christopher Wren, Sir Humphrey Davy, Benjamin Franklin, and 
Robert Fulton, must be rolled into one man, in various assortments, 
to make what we call an engineer, or foreman of a factory, or of a 
machine shop ; and all such men, with their multifarious adaptations 
of their great exemplars^ we class together under our meagre 
phrase, " skilled artisans." 

Do we apprehend the wealth-producing force there is in these 
hirelings of capital ? Do we understand how much they have 
grown into their several arts, and how much they are able to grow 
out of them, for their own service ? What is the meaning of trade 
unions and trade strikes, that act now throughout all advancing 
communities like free masonry, issuing their orders from the grand 
lodges that are the foci of their mind and muscle ? Are they only 
a declaration of helplessness under wrongs ? Are their frequent 
failures only a proof of their feebleness ? Are they not, on the 
contrary, the riots, insurrections, and revolts, that ripen into revolu- 
tions, and, at last, establish governments, and administer them ? And 
what will come of them when they shall have blundered, and sinned, 
and suifered enough to grow wise and good by their purgatorial 
development ? Slaves, emancipated by powers not their own, by 
mere docility get into positions of harmony; but rebels, that work 
out their own freedom from actual bondage, have their own follies 
and crimes to struggle with ; but nothing that they do or leave 
undone affects the final result, however that result may be postponed 
or hastened. The laws of order are ever working through their 
disorders, and from seeming evil are still educing good. 

The working men of the time see colossal fortunes growing out 
of their toil, which, however better and better requited, as it grows 
more and more efficient in producing its joint results with capital 
and machinery, are still not evenly divided to them. Their wants 
grow with their wages, and they want, above all other wants, some 
share of the profits, because they think that products are the joint 
issue of the agents which are their parents; and they are beginning 
to see that lawful marriage of the generators of wealth must 
establish the legitimacy of the issue, and the lawful claims of each 



294 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

party to its production. Cooperation is the marriage of labor and 
capita], and they are beginning to perceive that bone and muscle 
must be able to say to capital '' bone of my bone and flesh of iny 
flesh." and let no man put them asunder or keep them asunder, 
that the lawful fruits of the union may be jointly and justly 
enjoyed. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

COOPERATION — STORES, MANUFACTORIES, BANKS. 

•Cooperation — stores, manufactories, banlis — embrace all the branches of business 
economy. — "Disjunctive conjunction" of '' Political Economy." — A science of 
labor promises a true political economy. — Lawless competition against orderly 
emulation. — Cocipei-ative stores or economy in expenditure. — Burdens of the 
retail trade. — Force of aggregated capital. — Every dozen of families support 
one of traffickers. — Conditions of reform. — Rochdale Pioneers. — Self-heljj and 
self-supply — success. — Profits rise with increase of capital from four and one- 
half to twelve and one-half per cent, in twenty years. — Benefits and safety of 
cash sales. — Avoidance of the vice of "buying cheap and selling dear." — 
Cooperation differs from ordinary partnership. — Spread of the system in 
England. — Statistics. — Central organization of cooj)erative societies. — Coopera- 
tion in Germany. — Herman Schultze. — One thousand associations in Germany 
in 1869 — business of sixty millions a year.— Rise in connection with popular 
education — obstructed by French radical agitation. — Popularity among all 
classes. — German differ from English, societies. — Credit banks — principles gov- 
erning their management. — Capital. — Reserve fund. — Rate of interest indiffer- 
ent to the borrower. — Money value of credit — extent of the business. — A Jacob's 
ladder of credit. — Profit and loss. — Statistics. — Statistics of all branches of 
cooperation in Germany. — Interaction of banks and stores. — -Cooperation in 
Spain. — Education and association. — Indoctrination after the manner of the 
Roman Rostrum. — Bussia. — Communes. — Emancii^ation of the serfs, — Rural 
population, nine to one of the total. — Russian fairs. — Cooperation indigenous. — 
Insurrectionary spirit of Western Europe unfriendly' to cooperation. — Radical- 
ism in Prussia. — Agrarianism. — Labor unions of Prussia. — Wages of colliers — 
a strike and its results. — Hostility of the insurgent spirit to property rights. 

In common use this term is restricted to sueli organized combina- 
tions of individuals as are designed to relieve them, as far as 
practicable, of intermediates in productive industry and commercial 
exebange. Cooperation is partnership in profits, equitably distribu- 
ted in proportion to the severalties of contribution of capital, labor, 
skill, and management. This is more exactly the description of 
those associations -which are properly called " Cooperative Labor 
Societies," or partnerships of industrial producers. 

Another, and in natural order, an earlier form of cooperative 

295 



296 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

business associations, are partnerships of consumers, who purchase 
in gross such commodities as they require for ordinary use, and 
distribute them according to their respective needs, at the least 
possible cost of distribution; being jointly the owners and venders, 
and severally, the final purchasers of the goods provided; thus 
eliminating the merchant, at least in the last stage of distribution. 
The company are the purchasers at wholesale ; and the agents of 
the retail have no interest in the business, other than that of 
employees, or servants, of the company. This form of the move- 
ment is known as " cooperative stores." 

There is a third form — the natural outgrowth of the two stages 
just noticed, which in Germany is styled " The Credit Banking 
System." The emphasis of the descriptive name falls properly upon 
the word credit, in the title. They differ from the ordinary money 
banks mainly in this, that they lend only to the members, or 
depositors, of whom each for all, and all for each, are virtually the 
indorsers. By this provision of the organization credit is given to 
borrowers who can command credit nowhere else, nor on any other 
possible conditions. 

Here, in these three modifications of cooperation, we have pro- 
vision made — 1st, by cooperative stores, for economy in the necessary 
expenses of subsistence; 2d, retention and equitable apportionment 
of all profits to the active partners in the production of commodities ; 
and, 3d, a provision of credit, and distribution of the profits of 
money as a money-maker, among those who furnish the capital 
stock. 

There are no more, and no other, branches of the economy of 
the individual, and of the household, than these. Men in business 
are either consumers, industrial producers, or bankers in effect. 
All the interests and functions of material wealth and well-being 
are these, and these only, when reduced to their substantive forms. 
The transporters and traffickers in unorganized business are but the 
adjectives or ministers of consumption. The capitalist, the mana- 
ger, the employer, and the hireling, in productive work, merge into 
one in coiiperative industry ; and the Credit bank depositor is in 
like manner lender, borrower, and banker, in one, as far as credit and 
interest on capital are concerned. Put these three forms and aims 
of cooperation together, and the entirety of wealth-producing and 
wealth-preserving agencies are embraced. They mean that sub- 



COOPERATION — FORMS AND EFFECTS. 297 

sistence shall cost no more than actual labor deserves — that the 
entire profits of production shall be secured to the actual producers, 
and, that money shall yield all its earnings to its true owners; and, 
still further, that credit, or the benefits of anticipated earnings, 
shall be provided and accorded in equitable proportion to investment 
and proved character. 

Having passed, in our review of societary progress, the partial 
and incomplete, in its varied methods and means, and arrived at the 
stage which is logically symmetrical, self-sustaining, and having a 
circumference defined, and supported upon its centre ; our study 
begins to take the proportions and relations of a science. 

Political Economy^ as it is, has too many incongruities, too many 
inconsequences, too many disjecta membra, too many refractory, and 
too many accidental, forces, to offer anything but a diversity of 
topics for logical inquiry. It lacks relation, dependency, and 
corroboration of points ; but cooperation, which, in its inmost mean- 
ing is harmony, looks as if destined to work itself into a system 
that, with organized labor as a basis, firmament and continent, may 
be constructed into a science in the true sense; having only the 
incident of exchange, in its present disorder, as an exceptional 
appendage — an exception not subject to lajv but ruled by expe- 
diency. The great function of exchange, within the sphere of 
organized labor, is controlled by its own harmonic principles ; but 
outside exchange, reacting upon that within, is necessarily abnormal, 
intrusive, and discordant. 

The deadly action of Competition, which is the dominant force 
in trade, as trade now exists, is in constant hostility to the correla- 
tive and corrective principle of cooperation. As an associative 
stimulus it should take the name, as it has the character of Emula- 
tion. So long as cut-throat competition is the reigning spirit in 
the world's business affairs, it will beleaguer, invade, and disturb 
the better order, and compel more or less departure, for necessary 
accommodation. 

Cooperative stores are the earliest embodiment of the grand har- 
monies which progress must achieve. Their characteristic features, 
their working forces, and their general results, will suffice for the 
presentment of their qualities and promises. They are but a step, 
and, therefore, the first step, in advance of the common partner- 
ships in business affairs, with which the world has long been 
20 



298 QUESTIONS OP THE DAY. 

flimiliar. The principles involved are not novel, but the parties 
and the special aim of their adoption is decidedly new. The opu- 
lent class have never had any difficulty in combining capital with a 
view to the profit of its operations iu large amounts; but coiipera- 
tive stores are the invention of the needy, the economical, whose 
policy is not accumulation directly, but economy of expenditure, 
pressed upon them by their necessities. Unable, as individuals, to 
buy at wholesale, they have been heretofore obliged to bear 
the burden of many intermediate profits, before the necessaries of 
daily life reached them. The support and the gains of a host of 
intermediaries are always charged upon those who must buy at 
retail. The whole merchant class, with their dependencies, rests 
upon the ultimate consumer, in the old mode of distribution; and 
the supporters of this great burden, aware that their evils lie in 
the interruptions of the route between the producer and consumer, 
begin their removal by clubbing their little means into a mass that 
will advance them nearer to the earliest grade or stage of purchasers. 
For this end they require only so much of concurrence and combina- 
tion as jointness of their aggregate contributions afi"ords. This is f\ir 
short of such agreement of action as jointness of industrial production 
demands; and is just so much the more easy and practicable. A clear 
perception of their simplest interest is motive enough, and some 
■wisdom in the selection of the necessary agents, and trust in their 
capacity and honesty, are all the moral qualifications required for 
the effectual working of the enterprise. The resources of the 
company are not the greatest difficulty, by any means; because the 
individuals have, and must have, the funds to buy the prime neces- 
saries of life ; and all that is necessary is to combine the little rills 
of outlay, which are wasting in their separate routes to absorption, 
into a river of the several affluents, and then they have all the massive 
strength of union. If a hundred men must, and do, find five 
dollars a week each, to be expended upon food for themselves and 
families, purchased at retail prices greatly enhanced by the inter- 
mediate charges, then they have, by uniting their funds, five hun- 
dred dollars in a lump, with all the power the larger sum gives 
them to avoid the burden of the middlemen's support; and, what- 
ever this amounts to in percentage of increase upon the wholesale 
costs is saved, less the trivial expense of purchasing and dis- 
tributing by their own agent, who works in their employ and 



COOPERATION — FORMS AND EFFECTS. 299 

for wages, without profit, and without the temptation of the 
trafficker to deteriorate the quality, or reduce the quantity passing 
through his hands. The possible savings of this policy are not 
easily calculated, but a safe basis for estiuiation may be founded 
upon the report of the mercantile ageocies of New York, which 
gives one store and storekeeper for every one hundred and twenty- 
three persons of all ages in the United States. This would give 
one family to be supported by every twenty-four. This statement, 
however, does not embrace any but such of these agencies as rank 
as merchants who purchase their goods in the principal cities; 
leaving out of view the mass of small traders, peddlers, transporters, 
and other middlemen, all of whom live better and more expensively 
upon the profits of their trade than do the laboring class which 
contributes so large a proportion of their gains. It seems not 
extravagant to say that every ten or twelve families who live on 
wages must support one other family in far better style than they 
can live themselves, under the prevalent hand-to-mouth system of 
supplies through the multitudinous machinery of the retail trade. To 
get the idea sufficiently impressed, one need only walk the business 
streets of our cities, towns, and villages, and observe the unbroken 
blocks of retail stores, held at high rents, employing hosts of 
dealers, and supporting their families and their lawyers, doctors, 
and clergymen, with their luxurious indulgence of leisure and 
of dissipation added, to form some idea, or, at least, feel some of 
the force of the burden that the last and poorest purchaser of their 
goods and wares must bear. To get rid of this prodigious tax 
cooperative stores offer themselves, in theory at least, as a remedy 
more or less coextensive with the evil. 

But there is a wide distance between a principle and the facts in 
which it takes eff"ect. A thousand contingencies intervene; and the 
worst of all the dangers in the route to realization, is the incapacity, 
the unfitness, of those who most need the working benefits. The 
thing in itself is practicable, surely. But has it ever yet gone into 
practice successfully? Are the necessary conditions at the command 
of those who would make the experiment? There is one grand 
model instance, which, however familiar to those who have been 
students of the cooperative question and attentive to its history, is, 
nevertheless, such an exemplification of the principle that it is 
worthy of rehearsal here. 



300 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 



THE ROCHDALE PIONEERS. 

In November, 1843, twelve of the laborers of Rochdale, North 
Lancashire, one of the great wool manufacturing counties of Eng- 
land, met to talk over the one great subject of their life struggle — 
their subsistence ; and to devise some way of making the two ends 
of the year meet somewhere else than in the parish work-house. 
All the usual resorts and devices of despair were discussed and 
dismissed; for they had all been tried, abundantly, and had as 
abundantly failed. The discussion ended in the conclusion, "there 
is no help for us but self-help; and, as we cannot get higher -wages, 
there is nothing left for us but to niakg what we do get go furthtr." 
Out of that wondrou^ly wise word there has grown not only a 
fabulously abundant fiuit, but an exemplar of the redemption of 
labor from its hopeless pauperism in Western Europe, and its more 
hopeless strife with capital, yet to be realized, all the civilized world 
over. These twelve men made their beginning, and thirteen months 
of persistent effort gave them a meuibership of twenty-eight flannel 
weavers, and a capital of £28 ($135). They rented a store-room, pay- 
ing the rent in advance, which, with other expenses, left them at the 
time with only £15 to enter upon business. This sum they invested 
in flour, butter and sugar. * * * j^ 18G5, twenty-two years 
after their first meeting, the Pioneer Society had five thousand three 
hundred and twenty-six members. In the first quarter of 1866 
their sales amounted to £52,870 (equal to 61,025,678 for a year), 
of which the profit was £6,516, or twelve and one-quarter per cent. 
The stock of the members amounted to about £15 each, in the 
aggregate, £78,610. 

In Blackwood's Magazine, of March 1867, we have the following 
general statement of results up to the ISth December, 1866, being 
taken from the eighty-eighth Quarterly Report of the " Equitable 
Pioneers." " The afi'airs of the society are in a prosperous condi- 
tion; the number of members steadil}' increases; the amount of 
cash received for goods sold during the quarter was £68,216, being 
an increase upon the corresponding quarter of the year 1865 of 
£13,042; the profits of the quarter, £9,281. The gross profits of 
the year were £31,934." The gross profits for the year appear to 
be about fourteen per cent. Their goods being sold at about the 



COOPERATION — FORMS AND EFFECTS. 301 

same prices charged by other retail dealers, the average gains of 
the trade are fairly indicated by this percentage of advance upon 
wholesale cost. 

The success of the store operations is established. The figures 
given show the extent. Its prosperity led to an extension from the 

-mere business of vending commodities to enterprises successively 
adopted for producing the supplies most demanded by the custom- 
ers. In 1850 a butcher shop was set up. In 1861, from five such 
shops, belonging to the society, they sold nearly six hundred thou- 
sand pounds of beef, mutton, pork, and veal. In 1852, shoemaking 
and tailoring; a little later, coal dealing, and in 1867, a bakery 
were added. In 1865 these pioneers of the cooperative store, under 
a difierent name and organization, had a flouring mill running that 
was doing a business of £148,5-33 with a yearly profit of £12,511, 
or nearly ten per cent. In 1855 the same persons established a 
cotton factory, employing three hundred hands and two hundred 
and fifty looms. Since 1863 a building association has arisen, 
employing a capital of £52,500, which furnishes its members 
with good houses at a reasonable cost; and, to all this, a life 
insurance and burial society has been added, with a capital of 
over £15,000. So, the working capital which stood at one hun- 
dred and thirty-five dollars in 1843, in twenty-four years grew to 
over one million. 

, These facts and figures must be accepted as a demonstration, on 
a large scale, and on a sufficient experience, of the practicability 
and the utility of the cooperative plan of self-help and self-supply. 
By this policy the Rochdale weavers broke through the thicket of 
their distress, and fairly earned the title that they prophetically 
gave themselves — equitable Pioneers. They have shown how the 
poorest laborers, on the scantiest wages, may escape the wretched 
quality, and beggaring cost, of such retail purchases as their class 
generally are exposed to. 

Beside the economy in expenditure, and the accumulation of 
capital and credit secured, they have been able to do some other 
things for themselves, quite as worthy of note. They have a library 
of nine thousand volumes. Not less than two and a half per cent 
of the profits are annually devoted to educational purposes. In 
1866, the sum of $1,450 was expended for newspapers, microscopes, 
globes, maps, and other educational apparatus, and increase of the 



302 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

library. The news and reading rooms are provided with English 
reviews and magazines, and metropolitan and local newspapers. 

Does this statement seem extravagant, and such results, achieved 
from such resources in one-quarter of a century, impossible ? The 
product is astonishing — but not incapable of convincing proof. 
Every one knows that single individuals have built up fortunes as 
jrreat, from means as small, and in time as short. But the answer 
is — these individuals have done it by lucky speculations. The thing, 
however, is demonstrable by the simple rules of arithmetic. Let an 
expert take one shilling as capital, treat it as invested in merchan- 
dise paying a profit of but ten per cent per annum, reinvest these 
profits, and the interest also, four times a year, and he will see that 
this trivial capital, united with an equal amount, contributed by six 
or eight thousand other persons, will bear all the incidental expenses, 
the necessary charities, and collateral donations to educational uses, 
reported of the Rochdale enterprise, and leave a working capital of 
at least a million of dollars. This calculation allows nothing for 
withdrawals of dividends, interest or principal, which, of necessity, 
must occur, and have, of course, occurred in the business of the 
Pioneers. In their eigthy-eighth quarterly report, they give the 
account current of their business for twenty years — from 1845 to 
1864. The first of these years stands on their books thus : 1845, 
No. of members, 74; amount of property, £181 12s. 5f7.; amount 
of sales, £710 6s. 5(7.; profits, £32 17s. 6^?. 1864, No. of mem- 
bers, 4,580 ; amount of property, £55,840 ; amount of sales, £174,- 
206 8s. 4(?.; profits, £22,163 9s. ^d. In the twenty years, the 
total amount of sales was £1,294,830, the profits £130,300— an 
average of over ten and one-half per cent. Will the reader notice 
the vast increase of the profits per cent on the larger sales of the 
last year of this period. The four and one-half per cent on the 
sales of 1845 could not be made to cover more than the expenses 
of the store, however economically conducted ; but the twelve and 
one-half per cent upon a total of sales two hundred and* forty-five 
times greater, left a large margin of net gain above expenses. This 
is a simple and direct demonstration of the benefit of increased 
amounts produced by aggregating lesser sums, and giving them 
the momentum, the weight and velocity, of forces massed and 
united. This is the eifect of association in the material elements 
of power. 



COOPERATION — FORMS AND EFFECTS. 303 

The system under which this store and its branches (for it has as 
many as eight of them in the town) conducted business, needs 
consideration. The society did not attempt to sell goods below the 
rates that individual dealers could afford. They attracted business 
by the assured quality of their goods, and by dividing, quarterly, 
the net profits among the purchasers, in exact proportion to the 
amount of their several purchases. They avoided the rivalry and 
strife of underselling — a game at which greater capital would have 
bankrupted them so soon as their business had become worth the 
crushing, and at which their antagonists would have worsted them 
in one day's struggle. They sold at the fair ordinary prices of the 
general trade, registered the sales, and induced their customers to 
invest the dividends, by all that is influential in the policy of 
ordinary savings banks, and in the feeling of property funded to 
those who never had any other. A fair trial of the plan, by which 
nothing was hazarded, had its proper effects. The declared divi- 
dends, however small, were bonuses to the customers and were felt 
to-be gratuities in fact — a feeling happily expressed by an old 
woman, who was advised to draw out her money from the store, 
which she was told was going to break. "Well, let it break. If it 
does, it will break with its own. I put in but £1, and I have £50 
there now." 

The store sold only for cash. All the improvidence on the part 
of customers, and all the risks to the vender of the retail credit 
system, were thus wholly escaped. The sales were not only for 
cash but at the current fair prices, by which the purchaser escaped 
the temptation to buy and consume so much the more, and so waste 
the difference, which the store reserved for them, to be divided and 
credited in due time. 

Again, the word " equitable" had even more potential signifi-, 
cance than the word "pioneers," in the title. The system left no 
place for, and gave no encouragement to, the plundering spirit of 
" buying cheap," which eats out the very heart of honesty. Here 
there could be none of that higgling over price, which, if not 
stealing quite, has the tone and purpose of getting something for 
nothing, and in turn, generates that kindred necessity of selling 
nothing for something, which is called " selling dear," in the creed 
of the worshipers of competition. At the pioneers' store price 
has almost nothing to do in the purchase ; the article is good, and 



304 QUESTIONS or THE DAY. 

the cost at retail, in the end, will be exactly what it costs wholesale 
with nothing but expenses added. 

And again, these expenses are as nothing to those of the 
traffickers, who must gain custom by extravagance of advertising in 
all its forms — in handbills, gay fronts, high rents, numerous clerks 
and solicitors for custom, with the multifarious expenses of the enter- 
prise which rivalship compels. All this mischief and its resulting 
burdens are escaped by the store, whose attractions are the equitable 
principles of, only good goods, cash sales, and pro rata division 
of actual expenses and profits. Clerks, storekeepers, and all assist- 
ants alike, do their work for their stipulated wages, and have no 
temptation to either extend the business by any indirection, or to 
deal unfairly with any customer. The common inducements to 
common offenses are all that they are exposed to ; the business adds 
nothing of its own. It will be observed that all the features of this 
business look solely to the one object of making the same outlay 
for the necessaries of life, for the things that we consume, go 
further than it can go in the competitive retail trade that prevails 
in the usual course of business. 

It has been objected that the term, cooperative, is not strictly 
descriptive of the stores which are distinguished by that name — 
that they differ in nothing essentially, as a business system, from 
ordinary commercial partnerships — from joint stock companies, or 
from life assur^mce companies, that give bonuses to their policy 
holders; because all these are either commercial associations or 
dealers in something which allows participation of profits. Reduced 
to their elements, and stated in verbal definitions, it may be so; 
but chemists find very different properties in combinations, pro- 
duced by mere differences in quantities and modes of combination 
among the same constituents. These stores are associative in 
impulse and in operation, and are in act and fact cooperative, in 
many of the best efficiencies of their working forces. There 
is a diflerence of degree in the cooperation that runs a mill to 
grind our corn, a shop to prepare our meat, or make our boots and 
clothes, saving the profits for the joint operators, and in running a 
store for the distribution of their products ready to enter into con- 
sumption; but there is no difference of kind in the cooperative 
movement. The difference of degree is in this, that the one 
requires little more concurrence than paying money and receiving 



COOPERATION — FORMS AND EFFECTS. 305- 

goods over the same eouoter, while the other demands a personal 
friendliness, a personal association, at least, and a union of minds in 
all the processes necessary to production. At Rochdale the one 
led to the other by mere increase of strength, and enlargement of 
trust and confidence in the agents of the respective stages. It 
seems to me sufficient to mark whatever of difference there is in 
them, by the familiar terms, cooperative store, and, industrial 
cooperation. 

The practicability, and the working method, of the cooperative 
stores, have had a largely varied trial in other conditions and in 
other hands than those that belong to the model instance which we 
have just detailed, so far as an exposition of the system requires, 
and, as might be expected, the history has the usual diversity of 
successes and failures. 

The example of the Pioneers had the effect of spreading a 
net- work of similar societies all over England. By an official 
report, laid before the British Parliament, it appears that in ISGS 
there were four hundred and sixty associations in Eagland with a 
membership of one hundred and nine thousand; their sales 
amounted to over $15,000,000, their property was valued at 
$3,000,000, and the profits, shared among the members that year, 
amounted to more than $1,000,000. Most of these were new 
societies then; not more than one-eighth of them over three years 
old, and only one in fifteen was seven years old. The inevitable 
difficulties of beginning were upon the most of them ; yet, they 
were fairly successful and full of promise. Those of the North 
of England created a central association for the purchase of 
merchandise at wholesale. This is managed by the Rochdale 
Pioneers. In 1865 they disposed of goods to the amount of 
£142,000 to one hundred and sixty-five cooperative stores, which 
was an increase of £55,000 upon this business in the preceding 
year. We give these figures' with the dates for the purpose of 
showing the rate of their growth, which is very striking in the four 
next succeeding years. In 1867 the number of Cooperative-Store 
Societies in England and Wales, registered under the Industrial 
and Provident Societies Act, was five-hundred and seventy-seven, 
comprising one hundred and seventy-one thousand eight hundred 
and ninety-seven members; having an aggregate share capital of 
£1,473,199 ($7,144,628) ; doing business to the amount of mor© 



306 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

than 830,000,000 annually, and realizing thereon a net profit of 
nearly 82.000,000, or six and two-thirds per cent above expenses. 
The expenses of some of these stores do not amount to two per cent 
on the amount of business done ; some of the newest and weakest 
make scarcely any profit at all. The best established, with the 
largest capital and business, clear as much as ten per cent, and the 
dividends of these would be much larger to their members, but for 
the very considerable amounts paid to customers who are not mem- 
bers J to whom, however, a less rate is allowed, with the difference 
inuring to the depositors. The percentage allowed to members is 
generally as three to two to non-members. A very equitable pro- 
portion, and one that answers well all the interests of both parties. 

GERMANY. • 

The establishment of coijperative stores was later in Germany 
than in f]nglaad, and did not, as in the case of the great exemplar, 
proceed from the laboi-ers, but from men who belonged to the edu- 
cated class. Herman Schultze, of Delitzsch, formerly a District 
Judge, and more recently a Prussian deputy, began in 1850 to 
propagate the doctrine and to organize these institutions. The 
movement took its rise among small independent tradesmen, formed 
into societies which aimed by cash advances for the wholesale 
purchase of raw materials and supplies, to maintain successful 
competition with the manufactories which, by force of capital, held 
the monopoly of production. 

This movement already extends all over Germany, and throughout 
all classes of its people. In 1850 the associations numbered only half 
a dozen ; in 18G9 they had multiplied to more than one thousand, 
embracing three hundred and fifty-thousand members, doing a 
business of sixty millions of dollars in the year, and holding three 
and a half millions worth of property. It is worthy of note that 
cooperative store societies, now so generally prevalent, made very 
little progress for full ten years after their first introduction. The 
factory employees, who were mainly interested in their formation, 
had then but little experience of any sort of organization, and but 
a vague and inefi'ective consciousness of their jointness of interest, 
and still less notion of the mechanism required for the advance- 
ment of their common welfare. Those most conversant with the 



COOPERATION — PORMS AND EFFECTS. 307 

history agree tliat the decisive impulse followed upon the establish- 
ment of the system of educational societies, which dates about 1860. 
Herr Schultze was able to report in 1861 no more than fourteen 
co(5perative-store societies, when there were no less than one hun- 
dred and sixteen of small independent tradesmen whose operations 
were limited to the wholesale purchase of raw materials. 

In 1863 the movement was temporarily checked by the radical 
agitations, led by the great socialist, Ferdinand Lasalle, who 
pressed upon the people the French doctrine of help from the 
State, in opposition to the great leading principle of self-help, 
which is the corner-stone and grand distinctive principle of 
cooperation. This conflict of policy led to discussion through all 
the ranks of the laboring population, and the result, besides the 
education in the principles and measures involved, has been such a 
general and resistless spread of the policy inaugurated by Schultze 
Delitzsch, that anything like definite statistics of the progress 
would be adequate only for the immediate date of their publica- 
tion. 

The plan or plans of these G-erman stores are considerable modi- 
fications of the Eaglish Pioneer system, without any decided 
improvement upon it in any particular, and upon the whole, less 
sound in theory and beneficial in practice. They are, however, not 
so closely confined to the class of workmen. They have been 
adopted extensively by societies of civil officers, and military men, 
and not a few nobles, also, have availed themselves of the felt ad- 
vantages; even ladies of rank drive in their carriages to these stores 
in Berlin, Vienna, and Hamburg, showing a general feeling in all 
classes of the community of a necessity for reforming the retail 
trade. The Grermans resident in St. Petersburg, Russia, have also 
adopted the policy to a marked extent. The gentry there engross 
the advantages and participate very largely through all Germany, 
but on the whole, the laboring people of Berlin, Upper Silesia, and 
the Lower Rhine, hold the greater share of them, and in them. 

The G-erman societies in general difter from the English in three 
particulars; 1st, they, for the most part, confine their trade to their 
own members, with the view of providing for their own consumption 
more advantageously than they can in the ordinary retail trade, and 
do not seek gain by dealing with outsiders. 2d, the G-erman 
societies take their dividends out of the store as soon as they are 



308 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

declared ; not looking to accumulation of the capital and extension 
of the business and of its profits. 3d. Many of the societies furnish 
their members with tickets which serve for purchasing at other 
stores, doing in this way a commission business, which is every way 
far removed from the cooperative principle, and forms no such bond 
of union as belongs to ownership of stock and joint interest in 
profits. 

CREDIT BANKS. 

In another branch of economic association Grcrmany has far out- 
stripped the kindred reforms of other countries. They have added 
to savings in expenditure for necessary consumption, and to joint 
interest in productive industry, that other crowning achievement 
which provides the capital of Credit, with all its attendant advant- 
ages; thus completing the circle of self-supply in all the elements 
of material wealth. Much for the amelioration of the condition 
of the laboring masses is achieved when the profits of the retail 
trade are secured to the customers who support it; much more is 
accomplished when the laborer receives the whole value of his con- 
tributions to productive industry; and there only remains to be 
made provision for the use of capital at the easiest possible rate — 
this the Credit bank system of Mr. Schultze supplies. Theoreti- 
cally, he " regards capital as surplus produce, the result of absti- 
nence, set apart for production. All that is required for Credit is 
security and profit in production. The only requisites for pro- 
duction are labor and capital. If labor can borrow capital there is 
no reason why it should not reap the usual profit of capital. The 
great want is security for the lender." This he proposes to find by 
association. A single laborer, having no property, can give no 
security. He may die, but in association the aggregate members 
are the security. 

The essential features of the plan are : risks reduced to a mini- 
mum by granting loans only for j^roductive purposes, and limiting 
their amounts to the average requirements of the borrowers; and, 
the maximum of responsibility is secured by limiting the borrowers 
to members of the association. The members being all liable for 
the debts of the association, and the association for the indebted- 
ness of the members. All members are required to pay an entrance 
fee of one thaler, (seventy-two and one-half cents) and a monthly 



1 



COOPERATION — ^FORMS AND EFFECTS. 309 

contribution toward the price of a share^ of not less than twelve and 
one-half cents. The shares are about forty thalers, each member 
can hold but one share, but its fall price may be paid up at once. 
The capital of the bank is the total of the subscriptions, and of the 
money borrowed for its use. The credit of the bank is well based, 
for there is a capital, a reserved fund, and unlimited liability of all 
the members. Responsibility continues after a member withdraws, 
but it may be released after twelve months. The reserve fund is 
formed of entrance fees and a percentage of dividends with which 
retiring members are taxed. 

The gains are from interest on money lent. The expenditures 
are interest upon money borrowed by the bank, cost of adminis- 
tration, and losses. 

The business is governed by the general rule of lending for no 
longer period than the bank can borrow. The bank borrows at four 
and one-half per cent, and lends at from eight to fourteen per cent. 
The rate of interest charged to its borrowers is of little moment. 
They are members and receive again their dividend of the surplus 
earnings of the money so borrowed by the bank, and of whatever of 
capital is owned by the bank itself. The borrower here is assumed 
, to be one who can give no such security as is required by ordinary 
bankers or lenders, and, therefore, can borrow nowhere else. If the 
bank by its great credit can borrow at say four or five per cent, the 
borrower from the bank gets his supply from it at no greater in- 
crease than his sharfe of the expenses of the institution, no matter 
what rate of interest is charged to him. In other words he pays his 
fellow members the smallest possible commission for substituting 
their aggregate and absolute credit for his own individual negative 
credit in the money market. The money value of this credit is all 
the profit which he can make out of capital, working for himself, 
or, all the difference that can be made out of working with capital 
for its profits, and working for capital at wages. 

The success and the rate of growth of the system in Grermany are 
shown by the following report of its business : in 1862 there were 
two hundred and thirty-three credit banks, with seventy thousand 
shareholders, doing a business of $16,790,000 in the year. In 1865 
Mr. Schultze established a central bank, to give the smaller associ- 
ations access to the general loan market, thus interposing an estab- 
lishment of the highest credit, for associations less known and 



310 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

esteemed, just as these interpose their higher credit for the benefit of 
their individual members — a Jacob's ladder of credit planted on the 
earth and reaching the zenith of the system. This central bank 
began with a capital of $150,000, in shares of SI 50 each. There 
were in that year, 1865, in business connection with the central, 
four hundred and ninety-eight associations, having one hundred 
and sixty-nine thousand five hundred and ninety-five members; 
doing a business of 867,569,903. There were, besides, about eight 
hundred other associations, with one hundred and fifty thousand 
members, who made no report to the central bank. The losses on 
this business of sixty-seven millions were but 820,000 ; the net 
profits were $371,735. 

The latest information that I have, shows the workings of the 
cooperative stores and credit banks upon each other and upon the 
extension of the principle to productive industries. In April 1870, 
thirty-seven societies of the Prussian-Rhenish provinces had com- 
bined agriculture with cooperation, employing steam engines among 
their implements. There were sixteen hundred and eleven work- 
ingmen's banks and loan associations. Of these sis hundred and 
seventy-five were in Prussia, four hundred and eighteen in Germany 
and Austria, and two hundred and eighty-nine in Bohemia. In six 
hundred and sixty-six of these there were two hundred and sixty 
thousand and seven hundred members, who were working upon a 
capital of 110.240,499, which was all their own, and on a borrowed 
auxiliary capital of 832,888,142, from which they make an average 
clear gain of two per cent a year. Their total business of 1869 
shows an average gain of seventeen per cent. Some of the associ- 
ations do not report, but so far as is known, the entire German 
cooperative societies number about two thousand six hundred and 
fifty, with an aggregate of one million members, and a business of 
not less than 8220,000,000, in 1868. 

The founder of the German system, in a recent publication, 
speaks of the process of its growth, in eff"ect, thus : " With the 
banks have grown up 'cooperative stores,' to enable the members 
to secure advances on their work, and to find in the store a place 
of deposit and of sale. The guarantee of the maker enables the 
store to warrant the goods to the purchaser, and, as the manage- 
ment is in the hands of practical workmen, their examination is an 
incentive for the manufacturer, and a security for the customer. 



COOPERATION — FORMS AND EFFECTS. 311 

The members of the cooperative stores and of the baaks are nearly 
the same; so that they are able to participate in the profits and 
advantages of both institutions; and the workman, who gets 
advances from the bank, is enabled to pay them off promptly with 
the proceeds of his work deposited in the store." 

SPAIN. 

The formation of industrial societies was fairly commenced in 
1862; a few of them have a still earlier date. In 1870 one hun- 
dred and ninety-six were reported, with twenty-five thousand mem- 
bers, and doing an aggregate business of twenty-two and a half 
millions of dollars a year. The movement here is exclusively 
among the operatives. An independent enterprise, formed by 
people of wealth and education, for the purpose of giving free even- 
ing instruction to workingmen and their children, beside its own 
excellent objects, is made to subserve the cooperative movement 
among the industrial populace. Masses of illiterate men, who have 
absolutely no other means of education, are brought together. The 
method is by lecturing and questioning the audience on topics of 
household economy and cooperation, not unfrequently mingled with 
political discussions, and employing assistants mixed with the 
crowd to excite interest, and encourage participation by the 
audience. In this way cooperative stores, bakeries, social kitchens, 
and the general policy of the labor interests, are familiarly and 
effectively presented. The English and German laboring people 
have their popular tuition well supplied by printed books, tracts, 
and newspapers, but Spanish propagandism, in lack of these, makes 
its dusty-foot forums answer for the time and circumstances quite 
as well, or better. 

RUSSIA. 

Previous to the emancipation of the serfs the working policy of 
the Communes considerably resembled the cooperative system, as it 
might be applied to agriculture. The Russian Commune may be 
generally, and sufficiently well, described for our purposes, thus : 
A plot of fertile land containing, say one hundred thousand acres ; 
on its border are situated the villa, stables, and offices of the lord 
of the manor. He owns, by inheritance, ten thousand acres, the 



312 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

remaining ninety thousand are virtually the property of the serfs, 
which they work for themselves in their hours of leisure. In the 
-centre is the communal village, with the gardens and farms around 
it. The village has about one hundred and fifty inhabitants. Each 
of the fifty families is entitled to garden and farm land in equitable 
proportion to its number in family, with enlargements or diminution 
of area according to the increase or decrease of the number and 
need. The partition and appropriation of the lauds is under the 
government of a Board, elected for the purpose by universal suf- 
frage. The lands thus divided are, however, the property of the 
commune, and not of the individual to whom they are assigned. 
He cannot convey or sub-let his lot. When the households are 
diminished by marriage or death the Board alters the lot and 
apportions the quantity deducted to a newly-formed household or to 
some family which has increased in number. It is said that no real 
mischief results from such changes of apportionment, and very 
little trouble attends them. The commune is a little republican 
nation, ruling itself comfortably within the limits of its liberty. 
Emancipation has made the old-time serfs nominally free, but it 
has not, by any means, removed the grievances of their former con- 
dition. They are made owners of their lands, but they are bur- 
dened with the heavy obligations that in Russia attach to property 
holding. When they were slaves they enjoyed almost the entire 
product of their lands ; now, this is taxed to a very large part of its 
value. There are nearly six thousand of such communes in the 
country, with as many chief villas or little cities, and these are 
taxed very heavily to meet the necessities of the government. 

More than ninety per cent of the population is rural, and the 
cities are very few. The internal commerce of the people is mainly 
through their fairs. But little encouragement is afi'orded for build- 
ing towns; and the merchant class is but an insignificant part of 
the nation. The number of the merchants is but as one to one 
hundred and eighty of the population. The merchant evil is, there- 
fore, not very great, and the need for cooperative stores is com- 
paratively small ; barter at the fairs answering most of the ends of 
necessary exchanges. The agricultural labor of the country is 
already nearly all that cooperation in production, in that depart- 
ment, requires; and the communal habit and instinct are ready for 
such extension of the system as the rising fortunes and expanding 






COOPERATION — PORMS AND EFFECTS, 313 

business of the people may require. Feudalism is a rude outline 
of industrial association in political and social bondage. Civil 
liberty, replacing slavery, will have less of the savage spirit of 
repellant individualism to combat in establishing the proper relations 
of men, in Russia, than it finds in the modern democracies. 

What we have shown of the industrial cooperative movement in 
Europe will suffice for its presentment and analysis. It has a foot- 
hold in Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland, as well as in the countries 
which we have so exhaustively discussed for the purpose of exhibit- 
ing Its rapid growth, great success, and the many modified forms 
impressed by the characters of the nations now making the trial. 

In Europe the system has encountered a great resistance, both as 
to princfple and policy, from the insurgent spirit of the laboring 
class among the nations, where the evils of poverty have inspired 
a revolt against the oppressive dominion of capital, combined 
with political despotism. The laboring people of Western Europe 
are now, and have been for a long while, and threaten to continue 
for a long time to come, in a state of insurrection against the ex- 
isting rule of capital in production. France holds the lead in the 
agitations of theory and plans of reform, ajid is formidable in pro- 
pagandism among the people of Grermany, Italy, and Great Britain, 
Her philosophy is socialistic, communistic, and radical, in various 
modifications of the terms; and its doctrines and devices are hostile 
to those of the cooperative movement. The principles and policy 
of Herr Schultze Delitzsch's system have been everywhere resisted 
and embarrassed by the attractive, and zealously urged, theory of 
the French propagandists. A meeting of the Workingmen's Union 
of Prussia, held in January, 1870, at Berlin, fully reflects this 
influence, and exhibits its characteristic features. There were 
present eighty-nine delegates, representing over twenty thousand 
contributing members, efficiently organized, and a total constituency 
of about one hundred thousand. After full discussion, resolutions 
were unanimously adopted, embodying such doctrines as these : the 
recently enacted laws of Prussia, regulating industry, are an advance 
toward its freedom and assurance of its rights, but the unequal 
strength of labor and capital is only increased by the amendment in 
principle. This practical aggravation of labor's disadvantages, 
however, will hasten the crisis, by precipitating a solution of the 
social question. On the subject of landed property, one speaker 
21 



ol-i QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

said that the sole capital possessed by any one is the capacity to 
work ; the soil which supplies the means is the property of humanity, 
and it is the will of the Creator that it shall be reconquered for 
humanity. The laborers, he said, are eighty-sis and the proprietors 
are but fourteen per cent of the population ; the laborers are the 
real owners of the land ; all means of production, including the 
soil, should be common property. With the first productive organ- 
ization, and the assistance of the State, the disorganization of the 
present, and the construction of the new order begins. The other 
speakers concurred, and the convention adopted the sentiments 
expressed. 

The first effect of the law of 1868, conceding the right of the 
workingmen of North Oeruiany to combine against their employers, 
was the formation of labor uuions. The next, was a strike of the 
miners in Lower Silesia, where wages are lowest, even in Germany; 
a coal-digger getting but forty-five cents, and a carrier but thirty- 
five cents a day. Those people struck for higher wages in December 
18G9. Six thousand were thrown out of employment. In a month 
their funds were exhausted ; S70,000 in wages were lost, and 
$80,000 were expended in supplies. Then nine hundred married 
men submitted; three hundred unpraeticed hands wei'e added, and 
the work went on as it best could, with the diminished force. The 
unmarried men held out. The final result was a sort of triumph for 
the strikers, at the cost that may be inferred from the submission 
of those upon whom it pressed hardest, and the actual losses of all 
the rest. 

It is specially unfortunate for the laboring people now every- 
where combined in unions for the betterment of their condition 
and advancement of their rights, that their speculative principles 
are so largely derived from the French school of agitators, who, 
while organized as labor unions, are much more largely occupied 
with socialistic and political objects. They are better understood by 
the name assumed by their compatriots in Spain where they call 
themselves " Unions of Iicsistance." The governing spirit of the 
French movement is hostility to property rights, to capital in the 
hands of the present holders, and resultingly, to a practical union 
of existing capital with labor in productive industry. This' is not 
progress! von ess, or reformation, but revolution : a war with, not an 
amendment of, the present order of things, as impracticable in eflfort 
as false in theory. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

COOPERATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Cooperation in the United States: Recent introduction. — Attitude of labor 
to capital in the United States. — Labor not in despair — saving, not tlie rule or 
the means. — New England, harder pressed and more provident. — Cooperative 
stores of the St. Crispin Order — very few stores in Pennsylvania — none in the 
West or South. — Very few cooperative industrial unions in the country. — Troy 
Foundery — immense profits of. — Economy of cooperative production. — Dividend 
of net profits, as wages for good behavior. — Economy of material and tools esti- 
mated at ten per cent of the product. — Somerset Foundery. — Aristocratic Asso- 
ciations. — Advantages of the pdr cent dividend of profits — and faults of the plan. 
— Stores ought to be connected with cooperative factories. — Carriage factory iu 
New York. — Building and Loan Associations. — First established in Great 
Britain. — The earliest in the United States — in New Jersey and other States — 
Failure of in New York and New England. — Number and capital invested in 
Philadelphia. — Plan and policy — complete fulfillment of the design in ten years 
or less. — How a renter becomes owner in a dozen years. — Slaves buy their 
freedom with profits of extra work. — Custom against conviction. — Capital 
associated with service in the whaling business. — Possible savings of skilled 
labor in the United States — accumulation of in three years, equal to forty- 
three per cent of the capital employed in the nation in 1860. — French popular 
loan. — Popular loans in the United States during the Rebellion, — Competitive 
• versus cooperative system. — Labor Unions versus the union of labor, — " Supply 
and Demand" doctrine. — " Division-of-labor" doctrine. — Prevalent political 
economy, the apologist and philosophy of disorder — merely a huckstering 
theory. — Bastiat glorifies the cut-throat competition of individualism. — Pro- 
fessor Perry against Labor Unions. — Free trade labor auction. — International 
Labor League. — Labor Unions against the union of labor and capital. — Des- 
potism surrenders its own liberties. — Necessity and rightfulness of Labor 
Unions. — Tacit combination of capitalists.— Labor Unions drifting and tending 
to a happy issue, but must be directed by a policy of peace, self-help, and 
harmony with the existing order of industry. 

It must be recollected that these papers are studies in Political 
Economy, and that we are no further concerned with the histories 
and statistics of economic affairs than as they serve to elucidate the 
particular subjects under consideration. The topics involved in 
this section of our inquiries, are, for the most part, concerned with 

315 



316 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

the industries and exchanges of the passing time ; they are matters 
of the latest dates. The movements just now considered are aflFairs 
of but a dozen or twenty years' experience. They have scarcely 
settled themselves into permanent forms. They are all subject to 
the contingencies of time and trial. Their histories are rather 
promises than accomplished facts. Moreover, it is next to impossi- 
ble to collect reports of their actual states, and as hard to judge of 
their working forces from the immature experiments which they 
have as yet undergone. They are studies still even to the agents 
engaged in them, as well as to those who are only occupied with 
their principles of action and their apparent drift towards complete 
realization. This is more especially true of cooperation in the 
United States. The country is yet so young, its conditions so full 
of reliefs and escapes from the evils which press upon the old 
world, that its people are not driven with the same force into 
measures of defense against social evils, everywhere else almost 
unendurable. The demand for labor here is relatively so great, that 
in respect to all its products, except those which foreign trade 
supplies, it is able to command quite reasonable and mutually 
equitable terms from the capital that employs it. At least, labor 
here, however many and however just its complaints, is not in 
despair. It is not in the conditions that left the Rochd:ile Pioneers 
destitute of all hope except in self-help. For one of our working 
men that lives in apprehension of the poor house, a hundred are 
thinking of going to the State Legislature or the Federal Congress, 
and a thousand entertain very promising expectations of a house 
and lot in town, or a farm in the West, in good time for the estab- 
lishment of a family, that shall begin life well advanced in the 
means of living and of enjoyment. The common school in all its 
grades, the current instruction of the newspaper, accessible to every- 
body, with the examples, within every one's own observation, of 
grand successes among the poorest who aspire to, and industriously 
work for, the advance of their fortunes, amount to an assurance of 
hope full of the happiest influences. A system of savings that 
must run twenty or thirty years to the fulfillment of the intention 
has not much attractiveness. Very few of our laborers have any 
thought of living and dying where they are born. Everything 
among us is on springs, and everybody is locomotive. It is a 
wonder to find members of three generations of one family in any 



COOPERATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 317 

of our cemeteries, just as it is as* likely that one shall find a man 
wearing his grandfather's coat as owning his grandfather's land. 
We are very seriously engaged in making money — making fortunes, 
rather ; but we are not so hard pressed yet as to do this by making 
savings. A penny or two of difference either way in the price of 
a pound of tea, makes a corresponding difference in its consumption 
in England. With us a difference of ten times as much in the 
cost, would never be seen in our importations for consumption. 
Insurance institutions of every sort that provide for accidents, and 
in relief of casualties, we embrace freely, but cooperative organiza- 
tions for saving expenses, or for building up fortunes, are not felt 
to be pressing necessities by our common people. It is for these 
reasons, and owing to this general state of mind, as I think, that 
neither cooperative stores, nor industrial associations, have made 
much headway among us. In the New England States, which have 
drawn nearer to the conditions of the old countries than any of the 
Middle or Western States, these stores are regarded as firmly 
established ; yet even there, only forty -two of them were reported 
in January, 1870, and the oldest of these, except one, had been in 
existence but three or four years. Twenty-five years ago, " Pro- 
tective Unions," somewhat resembling these in aim and principles, 
had quite a run; but they have all disappeared except one in 
Worcester, Massachusetts, and it owes its continuance to essential 
changes in its administration, bringing it more nearly into con- 
formity with present requirements than by the original plan of its 
organization. For the rest, it is curious to observe that the suc- 
cessful establishment of cooperative stores of supply, which dates 
no further back than the year 1866, is mainly due to the auxiliary 
influence of the Order of The Knights of St. Crispin, which have 
in Massachusetts alone one hundred and seventeen lodges, and 
thirty thousand members. Corroborated by the ties of brother- 
hood in a secret society, and governed by its organization, coopera- 
tion in retail selling and buying is made practicable. This Order, 
and a dozen or a score of similar orders, embracing other callings 
and businesses, exist everywhere in the Union, but scarcely any- 
where else have they adopted the provident system of supplies in 
the common necessaries of life — simply, as I suppose, because 
Yankee thrift and economy are nowhere else so imperatively 
demanded. So far as these stores have been tried and well man- 



318 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

aged, they liave yielded profitg and benefits in kind and degree 
quite equal to the best of similar establishments in Europe. 

Pennsylvania has one successful store of this kind in the anthra- 
cite coal region. It was set up in 1856, and in 1S69 was able to make 
a handsome report of its business, its prosperity, and its prospects. 
There may be others in the Middle States, but if there be, they 
have gained no notoriety. 

It is true that these stores have in every instance fully vindicated 
their policy when well conducted ; yet it is just as true, that they 
are only adopted where their need is most imperatively felt. 

The history of industrial cooperations among us is still more 
meagre of instances. There are several examples of marked success, 
indeed, but even these are not organized on the principles that cover 
the whole broad ground of the associative policy. At Troy, New 
York, for instance, thirty-two iron moulders, in the year 1866, 
associated with a capital of 819.500. They have been abundantly 
successful. It is said that they divided ninet}'^ per cent upon their 
stock and labor in the third year. Their dividends, however, were 
not paid out, but were invested in new stock in the firm, enabling it 
to employ more men and rapidly enlarge its business. But the insti- 
tution is so far from being an instance of cooperative association, in 
the sense and service which addresses itself to the relief of the 
industrious unpropertied poor, that it is, in fact, only a partnership 
of capitalists, or of workiugmen who are their own employers, by 
virtue of the considerable stock which they were able to bring into 
the concern at its commencement. They had but eighty-five mem- 
bers in their third year, and they hold it as a condition of their 
business that there shall not be more than one member in it for 
every $2500 of stock paid up. A strike in 1S66 drove them into 
the enterprise on a capital of S600 to each member; but the gov- 
erning policy is a return to the amount first determined upon. 
Notwithstanding the enormous profit made, they do not undersell 
their rivals, nor are they tempted to do so. Their profit is princi- 
pally the result of the economy in the conduct of the business, due 
to the interest of proprietorship in the workmen. The foundery 
conducts itself; for every man in it is an interested conductor. The 
executive chief of the works says that, " out of twelve hundred tons 
of pig iron, we can make, using the same pattern, one hundred more 
tons of stoves than any private establishment in Troy." Here asso- 



COOPERATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 319 

ciation gives a profit of about ten per cent upon the value of the 
products. This is margin enough for defense against rivah-y in the 
market, and enough to build up the fortunes of the partners. 
■These Troy founderymen do not even profess benevolence to the 
craft. They seek no extension of their system ; but, availing them- 
selves of the benefit of the associative policy, they derive its ad- 
vantages and demonstrate its benefits to all who would adopt it. 

We have 'met with another mode of inducing and securing 
economy in the use of materials, the employment of tools, and in- 
crease of production, by dividing ten per cent, in one instance, of 
the net profit of the business to the workmen, on condition of good 
behavior in all respects which concern the prosperity of the pro- 
prietors ; and we have seen the case in the newspapers under the 
caption of " successful cooperation." But the scheme difi"ers in 
nothing from the common system except in extending wages from' 
work paid by the piece or by time employed, to a wages reward for 
good behavior. It is worth notice that this ten per cent of profits 
so offered is about the equivalent of the ten per cent of larger pro- 
duct at the Troy foundery, and thus shows the money worth of the 
economy secured by giving the workingmen the full value of their 
care and fidelity to the proprietary interests, and so, is good evi- 
dence of the policy of the association of labor* and capital in pro- 
ductive industry. 

There is a foundery in Somerset, Massachusetts, on the plan of 
that of Troy, a ^'- close corporation," confining its membership to as 
many as the capital can employ ; keeping its secrets and its results 
to itself. It was established to make as much money for itself as 
possible, not to prove that manufacturers make too much. Its basis 
is fixed at $2,000 capital for each member. They say that no less 
sum will give a moulder constant and remunerative employment 5 
that smaller subscriptions too greatly enlarge the membership, and 
that from this cause other similar establishments have failed, as 
at Pittsburgh and West Troy. This establishment gives support to 
about fifty families. At Worcester "The Bay State Boot and Shoe 
Factory" employed five hundred hands in 1867. It divides the 
net profits, ipro rata, according to the work done — to males, 
earning above $100, and above $50 to females. The sum divided 
in the first year was equal to four and one-half per cent of the 
wages paid to all the laborers. Casual hands get nothing but their 



320 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

wages. The advantage to the firm is constancy of th^ workmen 
and the avoidance of strikes — another instance of a joint interest 
of capital and labor, and of the available influence of labor upon 
capital found in its reserve of moral power. 

In a currier's shop in Boston a similar policy has resulted in 
$100 extra to each of five workmen employed during eight 
months. The good results under such a system to the employer are 
more work from the same tools and machinery, no strikes, con- 
stancy of the workmen; and, to the employees larger reward, or 
reward for good qualities and good behavior, with all the moral 
benefits arising to them. 

The injurious error in all these plans for inducing the laborers' 
best services by extra wages in the form of a dividend of the net 
profits is in distributing, instead of funding, the share of profits. 
The sums so allowed are never sufficient for, nor are they invited 
into combination, as capital in the business; nor are they of much 
account as saving- fund deposits. Their aggregate in large establish- 
ments, however, would be large enough for the institution of 
cooperative stores. In Charleston, for instance, one such store, on 
a $7,000 capital, does a business of $150,000, furnishing food for 
three hundred and eighty-five shareholders at first or wholesale 
cost, less the expense of management, and it repays, besides, to 
non-stockholding customers a good percentage upon their purchases. 
Such stores should be connected with all industrial institutions. 
The small extra dividend of profits, added to the usual wages, 
impresses no one, but, joint ownership in a store or bank, with 
thousands in capital, is felt, and it works as a force, over and above 
all the other advantages which it afibrds. Such stores induce men 
to settle down near their place of work. A rise of value in adjoin- 
ing real estate is a noticeable and important result. The Troy 
manager says : " We have colonized the neighborhood. Lots of 
land that cost the first purchasers $123 have already risen to 
$800." Among all the advantages of a thoroughly cooperative 
system, this last mentioned is not the least important. 

In the city of New York a very extensive carriage manufactory 
has now for several years been conducted under the policy of allow- 
ing the workingmen a dividend in the net profits, as compensation 
for the greater care and fidelity which a participation in the value 
of the product iuduces. 



COOPERATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 321 

These instances are cited only for the purpose of exhibiting their 
principles and policy. The prevalence of the plan is so great that 
I cannot even attempt to enumerate the esamples, nor to mark their 
great variety of modifications. Merchants have^ time out of mind, 
been in the habit of giving their chief clerks a share in the profits 
of their business, for the purpose of securing and rewarding their 
best services, and manufacturers often do the same thing. Such an 
interest held by a non-capitalist employee, however, involves him in 
the risks and liabilities of the concern as a partner by legal con- 
struction, and exposes him to the consequences of the management 
in which he generally has no potential control. When the extra 
allowance is held as a mere gift by the proprietors, the liabilities of 
partnership are escaped, but the interest accorded loses something 
of the influence of the possessory feeling determinately settled. A 
marked example is afforded in the case of the great Paris printer, 
M. Paul Dupont, who carried on a business of five millions of francs 
a year before the late war in Prance. He divided ten per cent of 
the net profits among his workmen, according to their individual 
merit, and not in regular proportion to their salaries or wages. He 
has done this for twenty years, and has combined with the system- 
of donatives, saving funds, cooperative stores, libraries, and benefi- 
cial institutions. 

All this, however, is not cooperation in its true sense. It lacks 
the essential principle of making the workman his own employer, 
but it proves the practical advantages to both parties of giving the 
employee a joint interest in the results to such an extent as 
will command the best service by equitably rewarding it. The ten 
per cent allowance adopted in the instances cited seems to be the 
estimated profit of the plan in almost all the many cases which 
have fallen under the writer's notice, and it is repeated here as a 
significant fact. Can it be possible that the very best hands at 
wages are this much less profitable to their employers, than when 
they are stimulated by an equitable regard for their best care, 
economy, and skill in the performance of their work ? Capitalists, 
one with another, and one time with another, do not make more 
than ten per cent of the product as net profits for themselves ; yet 
it seems that they can afford as much to their workmen on the 
better plan of a modified cooperative system, and still save as much 
for themselves. We do not give too much emphasis to this practical 



322 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

result of an equitable distribution of the joint product of capital 
and labor, but, it illustrates tlie principle wliicli lies at the bottom 
of the system, and prophesies, while it provides, a remedy for the 
existing disorders in industrial pursuits. 

Besides the forms of associated business organizations already 
noticed, we have in the United States, an active and considerably 
extensive system which nearly resembles the Credit banks of Ger- 
many in principle, with a difference in objects and operation, but 
even more immediately and largely capable of the like intention. 
These are the BuUcling and Loan Associations. In Pennsylvania 
they are incorporated and regulated under a general law of the 
State. Edmund Wrigley, Esq., of Philadelphia, in 1869, published 
a very well digested exposition of their history, plan of operation, 
and general results, to which the reader is referred for the details 
which are not compatible with the limits and objects of this 
treatise. 

The first institution of the kind, it seems, was established in 
Scotland in the year 1815, under the supervision of the Earl of 
Selkirk. They thence gradually extended into the manufacturing 
districts of England and Wales; were afterwards established in 
London, and soon became general throughout Great Britain, until 
they reached the number of two thousand and fifty societies in 
1851, with an annual income of four millions of pounds sterling, 
according to the report of the Ptegistrar. The earliest in the United 
•States, it is believed, was established in Frankford, Philadelphia 
County, in 1810. In the City of Philadelphia they now hold the 
first rank in number and amount of invested funds. They prevail 
very extensively in the State of New Jersey. A few exist in North 
and South Carolina. There are some in Minnesota, more in 
Nebraska, and a considerable number in Baltimore. In the City of 
New York they have failed of success, and they are scarcely known 
in New England. 

In Philadelphia above a thousand of these societies have been 
chartered ; some of them never organized, some failed through mis- 
management, a number have closed their business upon a complete 
fulfillment of their design ; and there remain now about seven hun- 
dred in active operation, with an aggregate working capital of 
between five and six millions of dollars. 

The value of the shares is limited, by the incorporating law, and 



COOPERATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 323 

is usually fixed at two hundred dollars, payable by tlie subscribers 
in installments of one dollar monthly on each share. The society 
commences its business as soon as a sufficient number of shares are 
disposed of. The funds of the society are derived from the monthly 
dues of the subscribers, the premiums upon loans made to the highest 
bidder among the stockholders, upon mortgage on real estate, the 
profit retained upon withdrawals of stock before the ultimate result is 
reached, and very largely, from the interest upon loans which is paid 
monthly, and reinvested during their continuance. The great accre- 
tions of interest compounded monthly are seen in the fact that one 
thousand dollars, at six per cent simple interest, paid annually, doubles 
itself in sixteen years and eight months, while the same sum, with its 
interest compounded monthly, doubles in eleven years and seven 
months. It is clear, therefore, that in less than twelve years the 
interest alone would refund their money to the subscribers, and it 
is, therefore, quite credible that some of these institutions, by the 
addition of fines and premiums added to the accruing interest, are 
able, as they have proved actually, to complete their enterprise in ten 
years. A few very well managed ones have accomplished their 
intention in even less time. Mr. Wrigley gives the figures to show 
how a tenant availing himself of the profits of membership in a build- 
ing and loan association, by adding about twenty dollars a year to 
the rent of a house, may, in eight or ten years, become the owner of 
one equally valuable. 

By complying with the conditions of membership a man, by so 
small an advance upon his ordinary rent, gets possession of a lot of 
land suitable for his use, erects a building upon a loan from the 
society, secured by .mortgage upon the premises, and without much 
additional efi'ort eventually becomes the owner. The association is 
to him a credit bank, enabling him to anticipate the savings of a 
dozen years, and to enjoy their fruits in the mean time, all the 
while perfectly secure of the result, and ever afterwards the absolute 
owner in fee of his domicile.* 

The argument from successful instances might be greatly ex- 
tended, without being proportionately strengthened. The advant- 

* The activity of this movement in Philadelphia is only fairly indicated by the 
fact, that of thirty-two applications for charters to the Court of Common Pleas, at 
the April term, 1S71, seventeen were for building and loan associations, while 
seven of the remainder were fur beneficial societies. 



324: QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

ao-es of reformed and improved metliods in the conduct of men's 
business affairs are more frequently demonstrated than adopted. 
Human nature is not by any means a stupid, but it is a very willful, 
thing. It may be convinced without being practically conformed. 
Many years ago, a slaveholder in Louisiana, sold their time to his 
slaves to be paid for out of the value of their extra work. Two or 
three successive sets of them, under this stimulus, purchased their 
freedom. The proprietor made more money out of them by this 
policy than if he had sold their bodies upon the auction block. No 
one failed to see the pecuniary advantages of the system, and — no 
one adopted it. They maintained the slave system till it exploded. 
Customs obstinately resist convictions and conditions, and usually 
refuse reform until revolutions compel. 

Where business cannot be safely or profitably conducted upon the 
wages system, partnership of profits, without capital invested, is, of 
necessity, accorded, as in the whaling business, which has been 
carried on for a century in the United States under this kind of 
cooperation, or policy of rewards proportioned to risks and services 
requiring the higher qualities of the laborer. 

Reformers are very confident that the best way of doing things 
will sooner or later be adopted ; but it is well for them to possess 
their souls in patience, for, usually, it is only when no other way 
will work at all that the best is accepted. Nothing short of oft- 
repeated business disasters in the cotton States will drive the 
planters into a system of self-sustaining and self-supplying diversi- 
fication of agricultural production. Slavery is abolished there, but 
the industrial system proper to it must die by inches, and the inci- 
dental suffering will be ascribed to anything and everything else 
than the inherent vice of the obsolete policy. Every season that 
their crop goes into the market which it gorges, the planters see 
and acknowledge the mischiefs of their system, and threaten a 
reform, and accordingly (to custom) never do; but they will, when 
no choice is left to them, and, probably, not before. 

Under correction of these convictions, let us now look at the 
practicability and necessity of cooperation in productive industry. 

The relation of labor to capital in modern production is shown 
by the census of 1850, ISGO, and 18T0, to hold the proportion of 
about twenty per cent of wages to the value of the products. If 
we deduct ten per cent from that value for the profits of capital, 



COOPERATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 325 

the agency of labor in the business is about twenty-two and one- 
quarter per cent or two-ninths of the investments concerned in 
the work or business. Labor's equitable share cannot be claimed 
to be more than one-quarter of the joint product of capital, 
machinery, and industry at wages. In other words, the accumula- 
tions of past labor are as three to one in the forces currently 
employed in further production in the manufacturing, mining, and 
mechanic arts, as they are now carried on in the United States. 

This shows the part that capital plays in these branches of busi- 
ness, and labor's dependence upon it, for its effectiveness, that is, 
the measure of the relations subsisting between them. 

There are now about six millions of Americans working for — 
wages. Suppose that their savings could be made to reach, in the 
average, seventy-five dollars a year; the aggregate would be four 
hundred and fifty millions — a very pretty capital this if associated 
in active use. Now let us see how such possible accumulation of 
savings in other than agricultural pursuits counts up. In 1860 
the reported capital invested in such business, consisting of real 
and personal estate, including cash and credit, amounted to one 
thousand and ten millions; the raw materials consumed in the year 
cost one thousand and thirty-one millions, and the wages of labor 
three hundred and seventy-nine millions. The products were 
valued at eighteen hundred and eighty-five millions — products to 
capital, one hundred and eighty-six per cent. 

There were one million three hundred and ten thousand hands 
employed. Their savings, at seventy-five dollars per annum each, 
would be ninety-eight and a quarter millions. Add to this sum, 
accumulated in one year, the credit which it would command, and 
we have a working capital of one hundred and fifty millions, equal 
to fourteen and one-half per cent of the capital which, in 1860, 
yielded eighteen hundred and eighty-five millions of products, and 
which would, at the same ratio, give them one-seventh of the total 
yield of the mines, mechanic arts, and manufactures of 1860. But 
their wages that year amounted to one-fifth, or twenty per cent 
of the product. This loss of current profit is to be set to the 
account of the real estate and machinery which must be provided 
to begin with. A larger capital must, therefore, be provided to 
increase the profits. Take two years savings, and the yield would 
be twenty-nine per cent of the product of 1860, and three years, 



326 QUESTIONS OP THE DAY. 

by the same rule, would cover forty-three and a half, or seven- 
sixteenths of the like yield — the usual wages being all the while 
allowed for current support, less the savings assumed to be prac- 
ticable. 

We conclude that, whatever may be said upon the moral possi- 
bility or probability of such cooperation of the laborers as might 
achieve these grand results, the economic possibility is demonstrable, 
and its realization is the right drift of reformatory endeavor. The 
latent capability of the masses has been more than once demon- 
strated within the last twenty years. The instances show how the 
account stands between the aggregate of existing and disposable 
capital, and the possible savings of the industrial masses. 

In France, when Louis Napoleon required a large loan for the 
purpose of carrying on the Crimean War, he turned from the 
bankers of Europe to the people and asked them for five hundred 
millions of francs. They subscribed, and were ready to pay into 
the treasury, fifteen hundred millions ! In the United States, in 
the second year of the great Rebellion, the Secretary of the 
Treasury appealed to the people of the loyal States (when, if the 
whole capital of the banks had been emptied bodily into the Treas- 
ury, it would not have sufficed), and they responded by furnishing 
him with one hundred and forty millions of dollars. This vast sum, 
of which not less than eighty millions were supplied by the working 
people, was a trifle compared to the contributions from the same 
source in the following three years of the war. 

Our argument thus far assumes or supposes a continued antag- 
onism of capital and labor. But capital is not necessarily, and will 
not long be, actually excluded from fraternity with industry. As 
we have seen, in Germany, the people's Credit banks borrow money 
abundantly, and take all its profits, beyond the interest paid. So 
everywhere, the accumulated wealth would easily be drawn, upon 
sufficient securities, into a partnership of harmonized interests. 
Property is not robbery, as the French Socialists regard it; and 
communism, as they propose it, is opposed in all its features, alike to 
individual rights and the general welfare, and is at the same time, 
the worst enemy of true association. False principles inserted into 
the machinery of associative organizations, must in the end grind 
themselves out, by the counter-working of the essential truths which 
they encounter ; but at all the cost of the suflferings and failures of 



COOPERATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 327 

misdirected effort and misapplied power. It is not the strikes, which 
express hostility to capital, that achieve any of the triumphs casu- 
ally secured, but it is the power of combination, which they evince, 
that indirectly furthers their intention. 

COMPETITION versus COOPERATION. 

"■ These are contrary the one to the other," as St. Paul says of 
* the " lustings of the flesh against the spirit and of the spirit against 
the flesh." We have already noticed the conflict between the 
Delitzsch system and that of the French radical reformers as it 
occurred in the earlier days of the. cooperative movement in Ger- 
many, and indicated the obstructive action of the " Labor Unions'' 
upon the unio7i of labor in Europe and America. This spirit of 
antagonism between the two great parties into which the pro- 
gressives and the revolutionists of the laboring mass are divided, has 
one of its roots in the common and natural feeling of resistance to 
wrong and its resulting evils; and another, in the theoretical system 
of a very large and influential body of political economists, who 
have for their help the essentially rebellious spirit of modern 
civilization. The authorities upon which the competitive school 
stands, justify its spirit, but curiously enough, while they oppose 
the procedure of the " Labor Unions," supply their doctrinal basis. 
x\.dam Smith and after him J. B. Say and John Stuart Mill, teach 
that the law of " supply and demand" is the sole regulator of the 
rewards of labor, as well as of the value of all products; and they 
all alike insist upon the free play of this law of theirs in all circum- 
stances, and in all cases of exhange. No place or force is allowed by 
this theory for combination of either labor or wealth to regulate 
prices. The authorities of this school, on the contrary, agree in 
sustaining the philosophy and policy of free competition between the 
producers, the consumers, and the venders of all commodities, and 
between the individuals of each class. They all alike hold that the 
utmost possible division of labor, both in industrial production and 
in territorial distribution, is its highest and happiest organization, 
and the aim and end of all possible improvement of its system, and 
the thing to be pursued and achieved ; which means nothing else, 
under the present order of things, than the reduction of the 
industrial classes into a wonderfully complicated form of machinery, 



328 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

with capital for its motor power, director, and employer. Indeed, 
when closely examined, the system of doctrines which we have 
accepted from them is simply a logical underpinning of the very 
order of things, which the " Unions" are organized to resist and 
which the theory of reform criticises and condemns. It is simply 
an endeavor to find a philosophy that will justify the reigning 
disorder in the existing relations of capital and labor. A philosophy 
which considers the well-being of neither producer nor consumer, 
but, looking only to the interests of the trader, has all the law and* 
the prophets in this, the greatest of its commandments, " buy 
where you can buy cheapest and sell where you can sell dearest." 
The life and soul of this schopl's teachings is fully expressed by 
Frederick Bastiat, and accepted by his party everywhere as the 
latest and best of its oracles, thus : " Cvmpetitiun is democratic in 
its essence ; the most progressive, the most equalizing, and the 
most communistic of all the provisions to which Providence has 
confided the direction of human progress." If further exposition 
and application of this fundamental principle were wanting, we 
have it in the language of Professor Perry, the American champion 
of the system, explicitly given in these words : " The guilds of the 
Middle Ages, and the Trades Unions of our own day, are examples 
of voluntary associations for the purpose of regulating the wages of 
their members by combined action. * * * j'/jg sj)irit of 
Political Economy, which is the spirit of freedom, is against such 
associations for such jyurjooses. If any man has a service to render, 
let him offer it freely, and make the best terms he can with who- 
ever wants it." This is free trade carried from the province of in- 
ternational exchange of commodities into the domestic workshop, 
where not only products, but all that has a market value in the body 
and brains of the producers, are to be subjected to a chaffering and 
huckstering of manhood for money. 

The International Labor League, established, I believe, in 1864, 
and the Labor L'nions which are in sympathy with, and sustain it, 
drift in the same channel — the3' are all Unions of resistance, to 
capital, first and always, and to cooperative industrial associations, 
next, because these accept and avail themselves of the ruling order 
in the functions of productive industry, and withdraw themselves 
from the hostile array of the resistauts; their attitude being, in 
effect, a protest against the doctrines and policy of strife, and their 



COOPERATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 329 

successes a demonstration of the harmony, or rather identity, of 
interests in the parties now unhappily and unwisely at war. 

Labor Unions, by their scales of prices, indeed, prohibit compe- 
tition between the members of the same craft, but this is done only 
the more effectually to maintain competition between the buyers and 
sellers of labor. They do not aim at the abolition of the wages 
system, but, by all the force which combination can command, to 
rule its rates, and compel compliance of the capitalists who employ 
it. Their constitution is one of unnatural and impracticable inde- 
pendence — independence attempted in an Order of things of which 
the essence and governing spirit is mutual inter-dependence ! . To 
assert its own rights and liberties it wars upon the rights and 
liberties of the party opposed ; and in their procedure this uni- 
versal law follows them and vindicates itself — " Whoever will put 
a chain on the heels of any man shall have the other end of it 
fastened around his own neck." The spirit of domination, must 
to itself be despotism — freedom must be surrendered by any that 
deny it to others. War cannot be maintained but by implicit 
obedience to the commanders. The soldier in any field of strife 
puts his liberty and life under the power of his commanders. 
The array is cooperation in bondage, just as the association of a 
poor-house is brotherhood in beggary. Whoever closely watches 
the situation of Unions, driven to extremes of resistance, will see 
reason for the saying that " the way to make hell is to turn a 
heaven upside down." 

Trades' Unions are, nevertheless, not only thoroughly well war- 
ranted by principle, but they also derive no small authorization from 
their universal prevalence. Every trade, and every distinct branch 
of every trade, is, in the cities and principal villages of all free 
countries, effectively organized. This, so far as it goes, is coopera- 
tion, and is capable of its best uses. It is, indeed, a necessity. 
Without such concurrence as true and rightly directed association 
secures, workingmen would be helpless in the hands of their em- 
ployers. They would, in lack of mutual support, invite despotism 
in the management of their business interests. The very best 
promise of the very best results to such Unions is in the great fact 
that they are capable of association. In the multitude of coun- 
sellors' there is safety, when a common interest brings them into 
conference. The capitalists who now hold the machinery and 
22 



330 ■ QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

materials of production, which iu reh\tive value and efficiency are 
as three to one against the labor employed, are easily combined fur 
their own purposes. They are tacidy and effectively, even where 
they are not formally, united in action, as in interest. The coun- 
terpoise of Unions among workingraen for the like purpose is just 
as legitimate, but not more or less so. When righteousness and 
peace meet they may kiss each other, but self-defense at least is a 
necessity where strife is the rule. Tiie machinery is right in so far 
as it is mutual and necessary; and the comfort in it is, that, work 
as widely as it may from the right way in the days of its infancy, 
the trials and training of experience, leading it forward still, and 
upward, through defeats and triumphs, through all its sins and 
sufferings, as well as successes, will be ever tending toward the 
desired ends. That saying of Goethe is every way true — "A good 
man, even in his dark strivings, is ever in the right way." But the 
sooner workingmen attain to soundness of directory principle, a 
clear view of the true aim of all their efforts, and an earnest con- 
formity in practice, the sooner they will escape the troubles and 
sufferings of the educating discipline which they must more or less 
undergo. They are " endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit " 
among themselves, but they must be careful to observe the other 
limb of the Apostle's injunction — " in the bonds of peace." They 
must learn that they must adjust themselves to whatever there is in 
the order of things which cannot be resisted, and, as a first step 
toward the reform of their circumstances, put themselves right. Do 
they intend to take the rule of the world's business affairs into their 
own hands, for their own benefit ? Let them begin by ruling their 
own share of that business, and thus test their fitness, and qualify 
themselves for the agency they would assume. Until they are 
generally capable of coijperation within the range of their present 
possibilities, they will not be ready to administer the whole range 
of industrial operations; and, when they are so capable, they will 
not need or desire to usurp a larger authority. 



APPENDIX. 



THE LAW OF CLIMATE IN PARTY POLITICS. 

The reader, if a student of economic and social questions, cannot 
fail to. feel a profound, and at the same time a curious, interest in 
tlie climatic law of migration, generally and briefly stated in our fourth 
chapter. He, perhaps, will have looked for our reasons for dividing 
North America, including Canada, into three, rather than any other 
number of;, political departments, under the rule of geographic and 
isothermal laws. It would be tedious to indicate the details of fact 
and speculation upon which the division adopted seems to me to 
rest. Mr. Carey, in his first announcement of the law, arranged 
the States and territories of the United States into four climatic 
zones or belts, as will be seen in the appended article extracted 
from Forney's Press of the 22d of December, 1859, and in my 
statistical elucidation I followed the scheme of his proposition. 
This point resting, as it does, upon speculation (which I trust may 
never be verified by a corresponding political division of the Union), 
and liable to such a number and force of counter-balancing influ- 
ences as promise to effectually prevent its demonstration in the 
experience of the nation, may be remitted to the consideration of 
the curious. The isothermal divisions may be fixed at three or 
four or six, as further and closer examination shall dispose inquirers 
to determine. The number within this range is, in point of 
principle, indifferent. 

The idea of such natural divisions of the territory of North 
America, with corresponding political organizations, is not new, 
though the law upon which they rest has been so lately promulgated. 
While the adoption of the Federal Constitution was in debate, the 
writers of the Federalist gave the question of the possible number 
of distinct governments, that would result, on failure of the general 

331 



332 APPENDIX. 

union, their most earnest attention; and it is curious to notice that 
Mr. Jay, in the fourth number of that inspired work, speaks of 
three or four possible governments, into which the original thirteen 
States might be divided. Alexander Hamilton in the thirteenth 
number, devoted almost exclusively to this subject, holds this 
language : 

" The entire separation of the States into thirteen unconnected sovereign- 
ties, is a project too extravagant, and too replete with danger, to have 
many advocates. The ideas of men ■who speculate upon the dismember- 
ment of the Empire, seem generally turned towards three confederacies : 
one consisting of the four Northern, another of the four Middle, and a third 
of the five Southern States. There is little probability that there would be 
a greater number." 

This he gives as the more generally prevailing notion of the dis- 
unionists of the time ; but, now look at his own management of the 
premises, and the results which he draws from them : 

"If we attend carefully to geographical and commercial considerations, 
in conjunction with the habits and prejudices of the different States, we 
shall be led to conclude, that in case of disunion, they will most naturally 
league themselves under two governments. The four eastern States, from 
all the causes that form the links of national sympathy and connection, may 
with certainty be expected to unite. New York, situated as she is, would 
never be unwise enough to oppose a feeble and unsupported flank to the 
weight of that confederacy. There are obvious reasons, that would facili- 
tate her accession to it. New Jersey is too small a State to think of being 
a frontier, in opposition to this still more powerful combination ; nor do 
there appear to be any obstacles to her admission into it. Even Penn- 
sylvania would have strong inducements to join the northern league. * * * 
The more southern States, from various circumstances, may not think 
themselves much interested in the encouragement of navigation. They 
may prefer a system, which would give unlimited scope to all nations, to 
be the carriers as well as the purchasers, of their commodities. Penn- 
sylvania may not choose to confound her interests in a connection so 
adverse to her policy. As she must, at all events, be a frontier, she may deem 
it most consistent with her safety, to have her exposed side turned towards 
the weaker power of the soiithern, rather than toward the stronger power 
of the northern confederacy. * * * Whatever may be the determination of 
Pennsylvania, if the northern confederacy includes New .Jersey, there is 
no likelihood of more than one confederacy to the south of that State." 

The number of the Federalist from which this extract is made, 
is dated November 28, 1787, and Hamilton was then considering the 



APPENDIX. 333 

divisions into which the old thirteen States must immediately fail, 
if the adoption of the Federal Constitution should fail. 

To understand him exactly the oi^euiug words of this last quota- 
tion must be attentively noted j he says : " if we attend carefully to 
geographical and commercial considerations, in conjunction^ zcith the 
habits and prejudices of the different States," that is, of the States 
then existing, they would most naturally league themselves into two 
governments, in the event of their immediate separation. 

The purpose of these citations is to show that the natural divisions 
of the Union as held by the observant men and enlightened states- 
men of that day correspond sufficiently well to afford the support of 
observation and experience to the climatic distinctions of pursuits, 
populations, and policy which Mr. Carey's* law alleges. And just 
here the late fulfillment of Hamilton's theoretical views, by the 
great Rebellion, is sufficiently close to give great weight to 
the climatic principle which, though unknown to him, was the 
efficient cause of the effects which he clearly understood. The 
division between the loyal and the secession States in 1861 fell 
just where Hamilton indicated it, though with a strip of " debatable 
land," consisting of Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky^ between 
the broadly and decidedly separated States. 

We would have it noticed, also, that the lines which are given as 
the supposed boundaries of the division into three governments, as 
well as that one which Hamilton fixes between the two political 
organizations which he thought the more probable, all alike run 
' east and west, and that they correspond accurately to well dis- 
tinguished belts of temperature. 

The phenomenon, like the fall of the apple, was familiarly known, 
and it only remained for a Newton in social science to reveal the 
law, and give it exactness of application. 

On the 36th page, ante, we ventured to assert that if the climatic 
law of migration and inhabitation of the earth is true, it must be 
also true that science, literature, and religion must obey it ; and in 
their migrations, follow the same line of march, and this for the 
obvious reason that the races who modify opinion and speculation, 
according to their respective mental and moral constitutions, and 
impress themselves upon all their pursuits, enterprises, and achieve- 
ments, migrate along their several lines of climate; let me now add 
that the politics of the emigrants carry with them their native hue, 



834 APPENDIX. 

of which rather astounding doctrine, the annexed article is sub>- 
mitted as curiously but conclusively in proof. We commend it to 
examination, especially of those who may meet it -with the strongest 
feeling of incredulity ; and we take the liberty besides of recommend- 
ing our younger readers to take up the census report of 1870, so soon 
as it shall be published, and for themselves try the doctrine upon the 
facts which it will afford them. The method and process of the 
inquiry are plainly indicated in our management of the problem. 
Moreover, we take the liberty of saying here, to young men, ambi- 
tious of distinction in the practical questions of social and economic 
relations, that without a good ground-work in statistics, they will 
never attain an available and well-assured proficiency in political 
economy. This advice *seems all the more required after the fre- 
quent and emphatic denials that we have given, in the course of 
this book, to the commonly preferred claims made by statisticians 
and politicians for their arithmetical data. 

[From The Press of Thursdai/, Becemler 22, ISoO.)* 

Pennsylvania's Position in the Union. 

A letter written by Mr. Carey, our well-known political economist, 
to a friend in 3Iassachusetts, and first published in the Boston Tran- 
script of the 26th Xovember last, is attracting very general atten- 
tion among the politicians who are concerned with the forecast of 
the coming Presidential campaign. The subject of the letter is 
the proverbial preponderance of Pennsylvania in our national 
elections. It is a fact that no candidate for the Presidency has yet* 
been elected by the popular vote of the Union against or without 
the vote of Pennsylvania, except the elder Adams. In 1S24, she 
gave her twenty-eight electoral votes to Jackson, which secured 
his plurality of fifteen in the electoral college. In the seventeen 
Presidential elections of the past, her vote has uniformly indicated the 
choice of the nation, except in the case of John Adams. Yet, it 
is also true that only in one instance has her electoral vote, of itself, 
determined the result; that is, the majority of the successful can- 
didate has generally been larger, sometimes greatly larger, than the 
number of her electors in the college. 

3Ir. Carey, looking for the causes of a fact so steady and reg- 
ular in its manifestation, traces them to conditions, circumstances 

■•••See note on pa^c Si", ante. 



APPENDIX. 335 

and facts, wtere they have not heretofore been looked for. It is 
obvious enough that a State which has never held more than one- 
seventh of the electoral power of the Union could not thus con- 
stantly, by her own proper power, determine its Presidential elections. 
It must, therefore, be ascribed to some constant cause of concurrence 
with her political action, on the part of other States, whose votes, 
with hers, make up the constitutional majority which she is ob- 
served to lead "or carry with her. 

For the natural cause of such concurrence and sympathy of 
political action, Mr. Carey inquires, and finds it as he believes, in 
the law of emigration, or that tendency which determines men to 
choose their new residences in climates nearly resembling those 
which they are accustomed to previously to their removal. The 
circumstantial, or, in philosophical language, the accidental cause 
of Pennsylvania's constant supremacy in the politics of the nation, 
is in the fact that she is one of a number of States which are the 
balance of power in the Union. The States which lie north of her 
northern line of latitude are so nearly balanced against those which 
lie south of her southern line, that her power, combined with that 
range of central States of which she is the exponent, easily deter- 
mines the contest in favor of one or the other party. Divided as 
the North and South are, and have ever been, the middle or central 
States as they lie geographically, and the moderate and conservative 
as they always are politically, must have the power to hold the 
antagonists, on either side of them, at arms-length, and to settle 
their disputes by the esertion of the balance of power principle, 
and thus maintain the position of political supremacy in the Union. 

To present Mr. Carey'.s views upon the subject of emigration, 
and its political results in our history, we extract his own very brief 
and general statement : 

"To begin, let me ask your attention to the simple law wMch governs 
the movements of men, who by the process of peaceful emigration are 
seeking improvement of their condition. Look where you may, you will 
see that such persons seek the nearest approach to the temperatures to 
which they have been accustomed — the Higlilander going to Canada, and 
the Irishman coming to our middle States, leaving to the Spaniard and the 
Portuguese the more sunny lands of the South. So, too, has it been among 
ourselves — the people of New England having overrun New York north of 
the highlands, a part of northern Pennsylvania, the northern third of Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, and having settled the three northwestern 



336 APPENDIX. 

States : those of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, 
having meanwhile colonized nearly all the remainder of the four Western 
States, and being likely soon to occupy the larger portion, if not almost the 
■whole, of the Territories which are now to enter the Union as the States of 
Kansas and Nebraska. 

" To Virginia and North Carolina have fallen the Territories that are now 
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, while South Carolina and Georgia have 
taken possession of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and most of Arkansas 
and Texas. As a consequence of this, we find the Union divided into four 
great zones, the white population of which, as ascertained by the last census, 
may approximately thus be stated : 

Northern, say 8,000,000 

Northern Central 5,700,000 

Southern Central 4,000,000 

Southern 2,300,000 



20,000,000 
"Nearly three-tenths of the voting population, as here is shown, sympa- 
thize much with Pennsylvania, and hence it is, and not merely by reason of 
her own intrinsic strength, that as she goes, so goes the Union. Not only are 
the tendencies of this portion of our people, as now exhibited, eminently 
conservative, but, as reference to history shows, they have been more con- 
sistently in accordance with the ideas of the men who made the Fievolution, 
than those of any other. Hence it is that they have been so much in 
harmony with those of North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, as well 
as with those of the better days of Virginia, all of these, with Missouri, 
now passing so rapidly toward freedom, constituting the Southern centre." 

The propositions of our author here given are so new, and, in all 
respects, so important for other purposes, as well as for those of 
nation'al politics, that we have taken the pains to subject the data on 
which they are made to rest to a careful examination. Let us state 
the results in our own way. After examining the fticts and figures 
as thoroughly as our time and resources allowed, we found that 
State hoiuidaries, as they exist between the north and north-central 
zones, could not be made to conform to the facts of the case, as they 
turned up under examination. Nor do they serve with mathematical 
accuracy for the limits of the more southern zones. As lines of 
latitude and lines of equal temperature were not consulted in the 
location of State boundaries, it was not to be expected that exact 
correspondences between isothermal and territorial lines should 
occur. Adopting the four zones of Mr. Carey, however, on 
grounds that seem to us entirely conclusive, we locate them thus : 



APPENDIX. 337 

Taking the southernmost point of Connecticut for a starting point, 
the southern line of the north zone will fall at about 411 degrees of 
north latitude. This line, carried westwardly, will cut Pennsjlvania 
a little south of Wilkesbarre, Williamsport, and Mercer, on the Ohio 
boundary, and will throw all the Pennsylvania counties north of it 
into the north zone. The same line, carried through the State of 
Ohio, will pass by Warren, Norwalk, and Defiance, on the Indiana 
border, throwing something between one-fourth and one-fifth of 
Ohio into the north zone. The same line, continued westwardly, 
will throw about one-seventh of the State of Indiana, one-fourth of . 
the State of Illinois, and three-fourths of Iowa, into the northern 
zone. For the southern line of the north-central zone we adopt the 
thirty-ninth degree of north latitude. This line enters at Cape 
May, passes by Annapolis and Bladensburg,in Maryland, and through 
Hardy and Barbour counties, in Virginia, and enters Ohio at the 
mouth of the great Kanawha river. Two or three counties of Ohio, 
about one-seventh (at the southern end) of Indiana, and one-fifth of 
southern Illinois (Egypt), will fall south of this line ; and entering 
Missouri above the mouth of the Illinois river, and emerging at the 
mouth of the Kansas river, throws the northern two-fifths of 
Missouri, or all north of St. Louis, into the north-central zone. 

The south-central zone, bounded on the south by the thirty- 
fifth degree of latitude, and by the thirty-ninth parallel on the 
north, will embrace the southern half of Delaware, the southern 
half of Maryland, nearly all of Virginia, North Carolina, all of 
Kentucky, Tennessee, the southern corners of Illinois and Indiana, 
the southern three-fourths of Missouri, and the northern half of 
Arkansas. 

To the south zone will fall South Carolina, G-eorgia, Florida, 
Alabama, Mississippi, the southern half of Arkansas, Louisiana, 
and Texas. 

Carrying these lines out to the Pacific coast, the northern one- 
fourth of California falls into the north-central, the middle half 
into the south-central, and the southernmost one-fourth into the 
south zone. 

Now, let us look at Mr. Carey's law of emigration as the census 
of .1850 exhibits the facts involved in it: 

In Michigan the whole number of immigrants was 257,006. Of these, 
there were born in the north zone: 



338 APPENDIX. 

New England, New Ycrk, (and British America, 14,008) 178,717 

Born in north-central zone 33,103 

Born in the south-central 1,5G4: 

Born in the south zone 401 

Born in Europe 39,023 

Thus, of the inhabitants not born in the State, five-sevenths were 
from the north zone, including Canada ; one-seventh from all the 
States south of the north zone, and one-seventh Europeans. 

In Wisconsin there were 242,376 immigrants. Of these, 202,758, 
or five-sixths of the whole number, were born in the north zone and 
in Europe. In the north-central zone 31,060, or a little less than 
one-sixth of the whole, and in all the more Southern States only 
4,413. or about one-fiftieth. 

Passing from these two new States, which are high up in the 
north zone, to two which lie low in the south zone, we have the 
following facts from the census ; 

In Alabama, the whole number of immigrants 183,324 

Born in the south zone 108,720 or ^j 

Born in the south-central 64,143 or y\ 

Born in New England 1,8G1 or Jy 

Born in all the other States 2,367 

Born Foreig ner-^ 6,538 

In Mississippi, the whole number of immigrants 155,793 

Born in the south zone 83,242 

Born in the south-central 62,405 

Born in New England 923 

Born in all the other States 3,482 

Born Europeans 5,500 

Here only one-thirty-fiPth of the whole number of immigrants in 
Mississippi were born in the States north of 39° north latitude. 

From these instances, we think the truth of Mr. Carey's gen- 
eral proposition is well sustained. Emigration is ruled by climatic 
laws. We purposed to exhibit the same law as it applies to the 
Western States which lie in the two middle zones, but must content 
ourselves now with stating that their statistics bear as closely upon 
the proposition under consideration as those of the States on the 
extreme North and South given above. 

The emigration from Europe supports the theory well. Of 
those from England, Ireland, and Scotland only one in fourteen 
were found in the States lying south of 39 degrees north latitude; 



APPENDIX. 339^ 

while of the G-ermans^one in seven are in that zone, as it is determined 
by the lines of latitude; but one-half of these are in Texas and 
Missouri, and even here the climatic law most probably prevails, for 
while the isothermal, or lines of equal temperature, correspond very 
nearly with the parallels of latitude as far west as the i^Iississippi 
river, those which enter the Atlantic coast at the 40th and 35th 
degrees of north latitude deflect rapidly beyond the Mississippi 
southward, falling as low in middle Texas as the 35th and oOih. So 
that while a large portion of Missouri is in the north-central zone, 
as determined by geographical lines, a very large portion of the 
north and west of Texas is in the same zone, as determined by its 
mean annual temperature. If this point holds, as we suppose it 
must, then the German emigration is no exception. One-half of 
the number must be subtracted for the States of Texas and Missouri, 
and this will restore the average to one in fourteen of the foreign 
immigrants settled in the south zone. 

It will be recollected by our readers that the isothermal lines in 
that part of Europe from which our emigrants come lie about ten 
degrees farther north in Europe than they do in the Atlantic 
States of the Union. Great Britain and Prussia lie above the 
fiftieth degree, and all the rest of Germany above the forty-fifth of 
north latitude. Their emigrants to this country find their customary 
temperature above the thirty-fifth and fortieth parallels here, and 
accordingly the census reports thirteen out of fourteen of them re- 
siding in the States above these lines, or, more accurately, within 
the isothermal lines of their native countries. This fact obtains so 
accurately that the Danish and Norwegian immigrants, whose native 
countries are above the sixtieth parallel, are found in this country 
in our most northern regions. From Sweden there were 2,449 in 
the north zone ; in the south only 436. From Norway there were 
in the north zone 11,705 ; in the south zone but 211, and 105 of these 
were in Texas. And while there were 147,711 from British America, 
only 1,067 of them were found south of the thirty-ninth parallel. 

We are accustomed to speak of man as a cosmopolite, and per- 
haps too hastily conclude that he is so much less governed by 
climate than animals and plants are, that he is at once independent 
and regardless of temperature. But the statement evidently needs 
correction. The species is adapted to all climates, but the families 
and kindreds are governed by it in their migrations. This to us is 



340 APPENDIX. 

a new and surprising result of this investigation. We are helped 
by it to understand tlie destination of the African race among us. 
It is a question of geography much more than of institutions with all 
the races. In a new country like ours, where immigration has the 
power to determine the institutions, sentiments and pursuits, avoca- 
tions and opinions; natural temperament and civil polity, go 
together, and this may be the reason why the controlling influence 
of climatic laws has not before exhibited itself to observation. 

The next step in the theory we are considering is, that the emi- 
grants from Europe, and especially those from the Eastern States of 
the Union, carry with them the characteristics of the several regions 
from which they remove, and so give a similar complexion to their 
political creeds and industrial policies. We have laboriously ex- 
amined the votes of the zones, as we have located them, in the last 
Presidential election, and we obtain the following results : 

In those sixteen counties of Pennsylvania which lie, according to 
our division, above -ill degrees of north latitude, and within the 
north political zone, Fremont had 39,916 votes, Fillmore 1,107, 
and Buchanan 24,908. Fremont's plurality over Buchanan, in 
these counties which belong to the north, and, as we see', voted with 
it, was 15,008, or as 40 to 25. In the balance of the State, 
Buchanan's vote was 205,802, Fremont's 107,504, or nearly two 
to one. 

In those sixteen counties of Ohio which lie north of the political 
line, Fremont had 39,488 votes, Buchanan 22,042— a plurality 
of 17,446. Fremont's plurality in the whole State was but 
16,623. Again, in the State election of last October, the whole 
Republican majority was 13,500, while in the Western Reserve — 
the counties which we give to the north zone — the majority of that 
party was 15,000, showing that, outside of these counties, the Demo- 
crats had 1,500 majority. 

In the nineteen counties of Illinois which lie above the line of the 
north-central zone, Fremont had 41,847 votes; Buchanan had 
16,122 — plurality over Buchanan, 25,725. In the other counties, 
Buchanan's plurality over Fremont was 34,784. Not a county 
in Illinois south of 40 degrees gave Fremont a majority, and some 
of them, in the extreme south of the State, gave him no more than 
2, 5, and 9 votes respectively ; but these last lie all below the 39th 
parallel, and belong, therefore, bodily, to the south-central zone. 



APPENDIX. 341 

In the twelve counties of Indiana which are north of the line as- 
sumed, Fremont had 15,835 votes j Buchanan, 12,752; but in 
the whole State Buchanan's plurality over Fremont was 24,295. 

Iowa gave Fremont a plurahty of 7,784 votes, but in the coun- 
ties lying south of the north zone Buchanan's plurality over Fre- 
mont was above 4,000 votes. 

Looking at the States and parts of States lying in the north zone, 
we find the following results : For every forty votes cast in them for 
Fremont, Buchanan had, in Vermont, 11 j in Massachusetts, 15; 
in northern Illinois, 16; in northern Ohio, 22; in Maine, 23; in 
northern Pennsylvania, 25 ; in New York, 28 ; in Michigan, 29 ; in 
northern Indiana, 32. These proportions, it strikes us, indicate the 
political sympathies of the people among whom they occur to be 
closely connected with their respective nativities ; and we may here 
state that the rule holds as well of the people of the north-central 
zone where the institutions are very similar to those of their 
northern sister States, and yet their political biases are as distinct 
and different as if they were separated from each other by some cause 
of quarrel or opposition of interests. 

We confess that we are greatly surprised to find geographical and 
climatic lines running through the politics of our people with sa 
near an approach to mathematical accuracy as our figures have 
shown us ; but we can see no error in the process by which these re- 
markable results are arrived at. The subject is a study for the 
curious and capable. Our data are not all given, nor, it may be, are 
they quite clearly presented, but we submit the statement in the 
confidence that it is substantially correct. The practical inferences 
remain to be drawn, which can now be very briefly given : 

The popular vote of the north zone in 1856 (making the necessary de- 
ductions and additions, to adjust the returns of the States to the lines which 
cut -them) was 1,625,913 

The popular vote of the south zone 404,151 

Do do south-central 715,766 

Together 1,119,917 

Plurality of north over south and south-central 505,996 

The popular vote of the north-central zone (making the neces- 
sary additions and subtractions)... 1,341,862 

Balance of power in popular votes in the north-central, as between 

the north zone and the south and south-central 835,896 



342 APPENDIX, 

In the electoral college tliese several regions stand thus : 

North Zone — Maine 8, Xew Hampshire 5, Vermont 5, Con- 
necticut 6. Ehode Island 4, Massachusetts 13. New York 35, 
Michigan 6, Wisconsin, 5, Iowa 4, Minnesota 4 — making 95 elect- 
oral votes. 

South Zone — South Carolina S, Georgia 10, Alabama 9, Missis- 
sippi 7, Arkansas 4, Louisiana 6. Texas 4, Florida 3 — 51 electors. 

South-Central Zone — Delaware 3, Maryland 8, Virginia 15, 
North Carolina 10, Kentucky 12, Tennessee 12 — 60 electors. 

North-Central Zone — New Jersey 7, Pennsylvania 27, Ohio 
23, Indiana 13, Illinois 11, Missouri 9, California 4 — 94 electors. 

This geographic division puts the balance thus : The south and 
south-central against the north zone, 111 electors against 95 — or a 
plurality of 16. But Ohio voting out of geographic order, gives to 
the north a majority of 7. 

The north-central zone has 94 votes when Ohio is in line, 71 
without her — leaving a clear majority of 64 to determine the issue_ 
between the extremists who lie upon her north and south borders. 

Now, if this doctrine of climatic and political sympathy holds 
good in logic and in experience, Pennsylvania's position in the re- 
gion that rules the Union is demonstrated and accounted for : and it 
is presumed that the National Conventions of the coming Presi- 
dential campaign will consider the subject, and provide for the 
struggle with reference to it. 

Whoever will look carefully for the reason of dividing the south- 
central from the more southern slave States, may find it in their 
past history, and in the clear indications of their future destiny. 

This subject invites further observations. It has its range through 
the whole field of ethnological science and of civil history. 

W. E. 

P. S. For the geographic and climatic distribution of the secret 
Orders of the United States, see ante pp. 268, 269, 271, 277; 
and, of the Cooperative Unions in England and Prussia, see pp. 
300, 306, and 308 ; noting the fact that the region in the United 
States east of the Rocky Mountains, between 39° and 42° of north 
latitude lies in the same belt of mean annual temperature as Prussia 
and England — another curious example of the coincidence of cli- 
matic conditions with societary movements. 



INDEX. 



A 

J^CTi\iTY of the vital organs, law of distribution of 79 

Ad valorems, mischiefs o{ in tariff of 1846 201 

Ad valorems, rule of taxation, alien and hostile to the principle of 

protection 209 

vices of 210 

Affinities result from differences, and in the ratio of their number 10 

African negroes, not savage 28 

Africa, savage 26 

Africans, residence of, in the United States explained 35 

Agricultural industry, exclusive, exposed to famines 59 

Agricultural production, advance of, limited 57 

Agricultural production of France, doubled in thirty years 48 

Agriculture combined with cooperative stores.... 310 

Agriculture in its infancy benefited by trade with manufacturing 

countries 178 

Agriculture, unmixed, cannot organize industry '217 

Agriculturists, American, two classes, broadly different — farmers and 

planters ; farmers export but two and one-half per cent of their 

product, planters export seventy-five per cent of theirs , 181 

Almsgiving changed from a charity to a debt 261 

America, European colonization of 26 

American manufactures sheltered by the AVar of the Revolution 194 

Analogies forced upon things not analogous 74 

Analogy of savage society to individual infancy 18 

of patriarchism to childhood 20 

of barbarism to youth 23 

of civilization to manhood 24 

Anno Domini 1776 253 

Annual production in U. S., value of 169 

Anti-slavery, history of 253 

A ^posteriori method, the vice of metaphysics and of political economy... 76 

343 



344 INDEX. 

A posteriori reasoning fails, where the focal point of facts falls outside 

of observation and experiment 76 

A posteriori, th'e system of, is capable only of unmixed materialism, and 
has never had any success in subjects whose life is joined with 

liberty 76 

Arts and sciences, not the distinctive glory of the last centenary 252 

Asia barbaric 46 

Association and individuality, their necessity 9 

their physical analogues 10 

counter-balance and corroborate each other 10 

Association freed and restored 251 

Association in bondage — in freedom 260 

Association, stages in the growth of 260 

Association without freedom is domination, not commerce 164 

B 

Balance, broken, of Europe being rectified 37 

"Balance of trade" not in difl'erence of values but of kinds of trade 171 

Bank circulation exposes the banks to runs 147 

Bank circulation never in excess except under free trade 200 

Bank currency, inflation of, due to excess of imports 200 

Bank note as a traveler 144 

Bank notes 143 

the money of the common people 144 

Bank notes, their service outweighs their faults 146 

Bank of Amsterdam, history and service of 139 

Bank of England, charter of, a failure 150, 155 

Banker's certificates of deposit multiply the service of money 135 

Banks of deposit as early as the Christian era 135 

collect and employ idle money 138 

sources of profit and credit 141 

instances 142 

their service 138 

Banks distribution of, in Scotland and United States 152 

number and localities of, rj'iuired 151 

Banks of circulation may lend twice their capital and one-third of their 

deposits 148 

Banks of deposit, discount and issue 133 

Banks, rule for distribution of 151 

Banking business, elements of 142 

benefits of 142 

order of development 149 

transfers the property in coins 139 

Banking should be as free as any other business 154 

Banking system, indispensable 151 



INDEX. 345 

Bastiat on competition i 175, 328 

Bo.rbarism a great advance upon the previous forms of society; Moors 
and Mahometans of the Middle Ages, superior in all things to the 

contemporaneous civilization of the Caucasian family 20 

Barbarism and civilization, distinctive characteristics of 22 

Barbarism culminates in the youth of manhood 27 

Barter, the type of a true commerce 109 

Belgian tariff, eminently protective 240 

protects her shipping 240 

Belgium, growth of population in 241 

Belgium, territory, population, manufactures, agriculture, commerce... 239 

Beneficial societies among colored women 279 

Beneficial societies, easy rates of insurance, liberal reliefs, and moral 

inflaence — they grow rich 263 

Beneficial societies in England, extent of 262 

Beneficial societies in the United States 262 

Berlin and Milan decrees „. 192 

Bible, tract, and missionary societies of the age 253 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, on Political Economy 191 

Bonuses and countervailing duties 205 

Books and newspapers published in 1860 255 

Boot and shoe factoi'y. Bay State 819 

Borders of Asia and Africa, stationary 27 

British demand for our provisions — quantities and prices 184 

British Economists, fundamental errors of 159 

British navigation laws 194 

British policy of trade and doctrine 179 

Brougham would crush all foreign manufactures in the cradle 192 

Building and loan associations, history of 322 

great progress in Philadelphia, principles, profit of 323 

Building associations 284 

Business functions, three classes of. .,., 296 

Business policy, stages in development of 286 

C 

Calhoun, Clay, in 1833 199 

Capital and labor, harmony of. 325 

Capital, association of, in various forms 283 

Capital, definition of.. 40 

Capital, finds a motive, in its interest, to afford equitable share of joint 

products to labor , 88 

Capital in association 260 

Capital in civilized labor 121 

Capital, quantity of, and quality of labor, relation of. , 87 

23 



34G INDEX. 

Carey and Bastiat 87 

Carey's law of distribution of wages and pi-ofits 98 

Carey, H. C, character of his system 5, 

Carey, H. C, law of climate 39, 331 

Carriage factory in New York 320 

Cash sales, policy and principle of 303 

Catallactics 163 

Census estimates of wealth in U. S., sources of error 50, IHB 

Census reports, one-third less than annual products in the United 

States 50 

Centuries, the last five, how distinguished 252 

Charities converted into equitable claims 282 

Chatham, Earl of, would not allow the colonies to make a liobnail 194 

Chemistry, a wonder-working adjuvant of human labor 5G 

Christendom, in the dark ages 30 

Christian knowledge, spread of in the last centenai-y 253 

Circulation, effect of rapidity of, not measurable by multipliers 187 

Circulation of money and of the blood, in what respects unlike 136 

Circulation, rapidity of bears relation to the quantity of represented 

money 136 

Circulating medium, its analogy to circulation of the blood loG 

Civilization and liberty rest upon credit 143 

Civilization, defined by its history only 32 

Civilization, distinctive character of 251 

Civilization, elastic and composite , 30 

Civilization, late development of 30 

Civilization, not logically defined 247 

difficulty of definition 247 

Civilization, the European form of societary life 26 

Civilized races of Europe, no decay of 27 

Clearing house, payment by set-ofl' 118 

Climate, laws of, govern human migrations 34 

Climate limits science, literature, and religious 35 

Climatic belts, three in North America 38 

Climatic law determines the future unions of States 38 

Climatic laws, prevent permanent domination of the superior races 36 

Climatic law rules settlement in the United States 34, 331 

Climatic law in party politics 331 

Climatic law in distribution of secret societies, and cooperative 

unions 2G8, 209, 271, 277, 300, 306, 308, and noie 342 

Clothing and lodging, equivalents of artificial heat 65 

Coal, power evolved 55 

Coal, seven tons give the power of seventy thousand women in manu- 
facturing 56 

Cobden, on Portugal and Turkey 246 



INDEX. 347 

Coinage, changes in value of, since the eleventh century 113 

Coinage at British and American mints 116 

Colbert, fosters home manufactures 205 

J. B. Say's account of his policy 241 

Colonization, a relief of suffering during ages of disorder 62 

Color, prejudice of 279 

Colwell, Stephen , 5 

Commerce 157 

faulty definitions of 158 

Commerce and trade, distinctive definition of 160 

Commerce is immediateness of intercourse and exchange 165 

Commerce, legitimate, insures supplies to the oldest countries 62 

Commerce of home 165 

might suffice for the United States , 165 

Commerce of savages 16 

Commodities, value of in exchange , 124 

Communism arises from fear of the ill-distribution of wealth — a mis- 
take and a failure , 290 

Communism, hostile to cooperation 313 

Communistic opposition to cooperative stores in Germany 807 

Compensations and substitutions in providential provision 63 

Competition, Bastiat on 175, 328 

Competition defeated and excluded in transportation 288 

Competition of underselling avoided , 303 

Competition, the enemy of harmony 327 

Competition, the soul and centre principle of free trade 328 

Competition versus cooperation 227 

Compromise, act of 199 

Comte, on the stages of societary development and their correspond- 
ence to those of individual life, note 24 

Consumers are also producers. 227 

Consumers, every ten must support one merchant 299 

Consumption and production in United States 51 

Convertibility, not the essence of the bank note 154 

Cooperation, a fully rounded system 297 

Cooperation between master and slaves in Louisiana 324 

Cooperation in Spain, how propagated 311 

Cooperation in the United States 315 

Cooperation in the whale fisheries , 324 

Cooperation, in the United States, less urgent than elsewhere 316 

Cooperation, practicability of 324 

Cooperation, resisted by insurrectionary spirit of AVestern Europe 313 

Cooperation, stores, manufactories, banks 295 

Cooperation supplies credit, and market for products 310 

Cooperation, survey of the field 281 



348 INDEX. 

Cooperation, the system of agricultural industry in Russia 312 

Cooperative associations, what they mean 29lj 

Cooperative foundery at Troy, New York, great success of 0I8 

at Somerset, Massachusetts 319 

Cooperative industrial societies in United States 318 

Cooperative industry, economy of 318, 321 

Cooperative labor societies, definition of 295, 296 

Cooperative movement, diiference of, in England and Germany 307 

Cooperative store in Charleston 320 

Cooperative stores, dealings with members and non-members 306 

Cooperative stores, definition of 295, 296 

Cooperative stores, extension of in England 305 

Cooperative stores, inexpensiveness of 304 

Cooperative stores in New England 317 

Cooperative stores in Pennsylvania 318 

Cooperative stores, practicability of 298 

Cooperative stores, the first step in guarantyism 297 

Cooperative stores, their properties and uses 286 

Coordination and subordination in living organisms 11 

Corn, burnt for fuel in the West 183 

Corporal punishment abolished 256 

Corporation, legal, its meaning. 260 

Corporations, moral character of, 283 

Cotton always a rebel 182 

Cotton crop under slavery policy 324 

Cotton crop of 1860, quantity and value 181 

Cotton manufacture, how protected in England 238 

Cotton, rapid decline in price of 220 

Cottons, consumption of, in England 58 

Countervailing duties in English policy 239, 206 

Countervailing duties, not protective in principle 206 

Credit, abuses of 143 

Credit, a Jacob's ladder of 309 

Credit banks, constitution and policy of 308, 309 

statistics of 309 

Credit banking system in Germany 296 

Credit, how provided for unpropertied men 308 

Credit, its functions and power 140 

Credit makes capital of character 143 

Credit modifies the money demand 117 

Credit system must enlarge with all progress in society 150 

Credit, the broad basis of civilized business 149 

Crimes, capital, one hundred and fifty in England ; diminution of. 256 

Currency, depreciated, evils of, less than of a lack of the money 
supply 155 



INDEX. 349 

Currier's shop in Boston 320 

Curse, the primal, has a promise in it 73 

D 

Death rate, greatest in the least dense populations 72 

Death i-ate in England, France, Prussia, and United States 72 

Death rate in London varied in one hundred years 72 

Debts and funds, no evil in decrease of value of 130 

Definition of value ••■ 87 

Deiinition of wealth, the measure of man's power over nature 41 

Definition of political economy -.... 9 

Democracies of Greece, faults and virtues of 249 

Democracy, the polity of savages 17 

Deposits, largely consist of bank loans 148 

Differences, the natural, enough for foreign commerce 223 

Differences, unity and cooperation of 31 

Discovery in natural law, followed closely by practical application 57 

Disease, a broken balance of excitement 79 

Dismal school, conflicting theories of 74 

Dispair, theory of, grounded in disorders of society 74 

Distributive law of inhabitation of the earth 32 

Distribution of wealth, laws of = 87 

Diversification of industries, the aim of protection 215 

Diversification of pursuits essential to the v/elfare of society 12 

Division of labor, benefits of, exaggerated 159, HJl 

Division of labor doctrine, abuse of 327 

Division of labor, territorial, J. R. McCulloch 158 

Divisions of the United States — Jay and Hamilton 331 

Doctrine, a test of 84 

Domestic exchanges in 1862, estimated value of 106 

Duty paid by the foreign producer . 226 

Duties, protective, who pays them ? 225 

Duties reflected upon domestic prices, absurdity of. 230 

S 

Earth, not one-tenth of the, fully cultivated 59 

Economy in expenses, leads to cooperation in production 305 

Edenism 14 

conditions of society in. 15 

Education, as a counter-balance, to excessive fertility 81 

Education in the arts repays its cost 227 

Eighteenth century, achievements of 31 

Electricity against time 55 

Elements of matter, man's power over 56 

England begins to advance in the fourteenth century 30 



350 INDEX. 

England draws from foreigu raw material four-fiflhs of her exports 61 

England, history of protection in 2-i() 

woolens ^37 

iron -37 

wool, iron and coal, protection of cottons 2158 

England needs custoraers and feeders on cheap wages 179 

England our only European provision njarket 184 

England, supplements her natural labor power by steam force e(iual to 

one-fourth the inhabitants of tiie globe &o 

England, the world's debt to 08 

England would crush foreign manufactures in the cradle '[',^'2, VXi 

England's foreign policy of trade, change of l'J8 

England's sanguinary protective laws 2o7, 288 

England's war upon foreign manufactures l'J2, lUo 

English Colonies, growing independence, and industrial emancipation of 88 

English domination in the world's markets, end of 88 

English manufactures, foreign materials, wages, and profit of Ol 

English protective duties never repealed till they were useless 2'Jl) 

Engineers, indefiniteness of the term 2U2 

Equivalence of money to values in exchange, unfounded... 115 

Era, new, in manufacturing industry, why fixed in 1814 '.•'• 

Era, the new, in civilization begun a hundred years ago 248 

Europe and the United States increase their labor-power six times by 

the aid of coal fJ5 

European people only have passed through all the stages of society, 

and show no signs of declension 27 

European races, their work of three or four hundred years -"il 

Europe, stable goverments organized in, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 31 

Evil is inverted good 143 

Excessive activity of one organ at the expense of others 79 

Excess of life supplies its waste 42 

Exceptions do not prove the rule 83 

Exchange the great disturber of coiipcration 297 

Exchanges, the life of man, a round of 107 

Experience, not always directory 29 

Extension of average lifetime in the present century (i4 

Exports, American, coarse and low-priced 183 

Exports of England, value of domestic and foreign materials 61 

Exports of manufactures to agricultural nations 187 

Exports to manufacturing and non-manufacturing nations, relative 
value of ■ 1^>7 

F 

Faculties, human, do not spring from suffering 16 

Faith-force above fact-force 140 



INDEX. 351 

Faith, like the mechanical powers, multiplies force miraculously 140 

Faith sustains hope and charity 60 

Famines in Ireland and India explained 59 

Famine in Northeast Prussia 59 

Famines in the earlier ages, frequent 58 

Famines and plagues disappear as population increases 58 

Famine?, remedy for 59 

Famines, their frequency in modern India 245 

Farmers' question, the 177 

Fasting commanded, the 12 

Facts do not always indicate laws 43 

Federal Government adapted to differences in union 38 

Federal Union of the United States, the model of nationalities 37 

"Federalist;" Jay and Hamilton 331 

Fertility, human, contradictory theories of 74 

Fertility of the soil, not exhausted by right cultivation CO 

Feudalism allied to barbarism 30 

Feudalism, association in bondage , 313 

Figures in statistics need rectification by facts 100 

First free list in tariff act 199 

First pair, the, provision for 15 

conditions of Edenic Society 15 

Flanders and Toulouse two centuries in advance of England in manu- 
facturing industry , 80 

Flax and cotton, supplement and displace wool G5 

Food and life, possible quantities of, unknown and indifferent 75 

Food and population disproportioned according to Malthus 58 

Food, human, demanded, limited like the product 58 

Food, increase of, in France GO 

Food of men, vegetable cheaper and more abundant than animal 05 

Food of the common people at end of the seventeenth century 92 

Food, prices of, remain nearly stationary, why 126 

Food of the inferior animals, vegetable against animal 65 

Food, provision of, adequate 59 

Food, supply of France, increase of 48 

Force and speed required in subjugation of nature 54 

Foreign imports crush domestic manufactures 195 

Foreign trade of United States in 1860 analyzed 180 

exports seven-eighths raw and one-eighth manufactures 180 

Formation of society 14 

Fortunes, private, immense growth of 291 

France excludes manufactures, growth of trade in 215 

France, density of population in f 48 

France, growth of production one hundred and thirty-one per cent in 

twenty years 47 



352 INDEX. 

France, increase of food in 60 

France, increase of food production 48 

France outstrips England in rate of increase of wealth 47 

France, success of protection in 241 

Freedmen hanged in the reign of Henry VIII 29 

Freedmen, their prospects in the new order of industry 99 

Freedom must be surrendered by those who refuse it 329 

Free foreign trade, no such thing rightly exists 175 

Free Masons 204 

Free-trade abuse of the maxims of liberty 225 

Free trade, British, its character 239 

Free trade driven to tax only the goods we cannot produce 232 

Free trade in the historic nations 242 

Free trade in Turkey, Ireland, India, Portugal 243, 244, 245, 246 

Free-ti'ade period 1833 to 1841, mischiefs of, repaired by tariff of 

1842 205 

Free-trade philanthropists 220 

Free-trade policy, its preposterous consequences 233 

Free trade suited to savages 177 

Free-trade truisms are nothing in the dispute 224, 225 

French communism, principles of 314 

Free traders, description of 215 

G 

Galvanism, electricity, clecti'ic telegraph, dates of 57 

Gas from water in expectation 08 

German lodges of United Mechanics 278 

Germany, cooperative stores in 300 

difference of origin, and movement 306 

Godwin, Parke, acknowledgment to 6 

Gold and silver, differ from paper money 115 

Gold and silver money does not by its quantity depreciate 115 

Gold, premium on 150 

Goldsmiths, the deposit bankers as lately as 1061 135 

Golden age 15 

Good Samaritans, admit women and colored people 280 

Government cannot administer a general system of banking 153 

Governmental changes of the future, to be internal reforms 37 

Government, best, definition of i 225 

Government, limitation of the powers of 222 

Grain and provision market in England, our share of 184 

Grant, General, on farmers' foreign market 189 

Grant, President, on our foreign food market 183 

Greeley, Horace, acknowledgments to 6 

Greenbacks, popularity of 153 



Grounds of popular error in respect fo relation of man and food. ..,...„ 4?. 

Growth of wealth in the most recent decades, law of 52 

Guaranty associations, three classes of 281 

Guaranti/ism 247 

Guarantyism, an effort at free association 251 

Gulf States, the Southern zone 38 

H 

Hamilton, Alexander 6 

report on manufactures 195 

Handicraft answers to science in effecting uses 57 

Hands employed in mining, manufacturing, and mechanic arts in 1860 93 

Harmony of interests of laborer and capitalist 98 

History, the habit of, broken in the United States 29 

Home commerce and foreign tirade, relative value of 165 

Home markets for agricultural products 183 

Home market, the farmera' 180 

Horde, formation of the 16 

Horses, price of in 1696 112 

Human progress, in economics, tending ever to belter and cheaper 

supplies 66 

Human fertility not a constant quantity 42 

Humboldt's estimate of increase of metallic money 116 

Hume and Mill on eifect of increase of money 123 

Hume, on stimulus of money 121 

Husbandry always loyal 182 

I 

Imponderables, the latest subjects of human dominion 67 

Imports, economic value of. 170 

Imports, kinds of, from Western Europe 171 

per capita under the free trade and protection tariffs 202 

proportion of, legitimate subjects of trade.. 170 

proportion of, ready for consumption 170 

small value of, to domestic transporters 169 

Imprisonment for debt abolished 256 

Improvements in changes of form and place 108 

Improvements in travel, transportation, and production 64 

India, British residents in 34 

British rule in, history of her trade and decadence 245 

impoverished by cost of transportation , 108 

in advance of England in the fourteenth century 30 

Indian, American, population, sparaeness of in time of Wm. Penn 64 

Indian tribes, infertility of, explained 82 

Indians, American, a degenerate race 18 

24 



354 • INDEX. 

Individualism giving way to association 2r)l 

Inductive reasoning, its limits in natural science 76 

Industries, diversified, sure defense against tamine 59 

Industries of savage tribes, but little diversified 16 

Inebriate asylums 273 

Inhabitation, slight modifications of the law of 33 

Innovations in productive labor, false alarms of 96 

Insurance in the State of New York, statistics of 257 

Insurance, life, property, and maritime 257 

Interest, difference between small and large capitals 285 

Interest, money at, a hireling — interest or profits? 284 

International labor league, opposed to cooperation 828 

Inventions and discoveries of fifteenth century 31 

Ireland, English policy of extermination avowed 244 

Ireland, history of her manufactures 244 

Iron, English, prices as affected by varied tariff rales 228 

Iron, English prices of, fluctuations in 100 

Iron of England, not one-eighth of her total exports 61 

Iron, protection of, in English policy 100 

Isothermal line of Mahommetan conquests 34 

Israel goes into slavery for a supply of corn 65 

J 

Jackson, General, on farmer's foreign market 188 

K 

Knights of Pythias, German lodges 272 

Knights of Pythias, origin, members, rate of growth, proportion of 

reliefs to receipts, law of climate 270 

constitution, provision for casualties, trivial expenses 271 

Knights of St. Crispin, their cooperative stores 817 

L 

Labor and capital, marriage of. 298 

Labor and capital, respective gains from increased productiveness 97 

Labor, artificial, substituted for natural 68 

Labor, choice in kinds of, how determined 216 

Labor cost of gold and silver, difficult of estimation 114 

Labor is capital 121 

Labor and money, yokefellows in production 121 

Labor is capital, but is usually treated as an associate 40 

Labor, its improved forms, promise to secm-e adjustment of life to food 81 

Labor, its kinds and varied rewards 216 

Labor, its repugnance to association 26, 288 

Labor, more and more demanded as supplies are drawn successively 

from the vegetable and mineral world 66 



INDEX. 355 

Labor-power measured by its actual products 50 

Labor, skilled and unskilled 172 

Labor remitted from low to high-priced work , 96 

Labor, rise in wages of, since abolition of villenage 90 

Labor unions, difficulties and drift 330 

Labor unions, do not aim to abolish the wages system 329 

Labor unions, their universal prevalence, their justification ; their policy 

requires a radical change 320 

Labor, unskilled, favorable to fecundity 83 

Labor value, Mr. Carey 87 

Labor, value of, is the cost of its education and training 90 

Labor value, tendency of, the law of, to equity in the distribution of 

wealth 88 

Laborer, the, what he is in the system of production 292 

Laborers, general improvement in their condition 102 

Laborers, their better condition in United States 316, 317 

Laissez faire 223, 224 

Land and labor, only increase in value in progressive conditions 89 

Land and labor, why their value increases 131 

Land in itself valueless 126 

Land, value of, is the cost of its improvement 90 

Laws of nature tend to adjustment of man and earth 60 

Laws of nature vindicate themselves 60 

Lead, price rises as the duty falls 229 

Libraries in the United States 255 

Life, extension of, in the present century 62 

Life, reproduction of, in inverse ratio to the power of maintaining it.. 77 
Life, term of, lengthens, and fecundity diminishes, with improvement 

of the human race 78 

Life, waste of, due to preponderance of the animal passions ,. 83 

Life, waste of, not a blunder of the Creator 83 

List, Frederick, H. C. Carey and Stephen Colwell 5 

Luxuries, not to be taxed as such 208 

M 

Macaulay, on bankers of the 17th century... 135 

Macaulay, on wages in England 91 

Machinery, against weight and space 55 

Machinery becomes bone and muscle to the brain and nerves of 

science 57 

Machinery, ignorance scared by, as horses are at locomotives 63 

Machinery, its velocity in work 56 

Madison, on causes that induced the Federal Union 196 

Malthus' corrective checks 42 

Malthus' doctrine of disproportion of food to population 58 



SQ6 SKPDX, 

Malthus' formula of disproportion of I'ood topopulaiion 42 

Man, a, the type of a society 11 

Man, not prices, the leading consideration in trade 17'» 

Man regarded as a beast, not a safe basis for a, philosophy of his rela- 
tions and destiny 74 

Mankind, collective, cosmopolitan, but the several families are l)ounded 

by their natal latitudes 33 

Man's adjustment to his conditions, not a question of numerals, Init of 

principles 7-^> 

Man's nature and destiny, philosophy of, rests on final causes 75 

Manufactures, cheapen faster than the precious raetals 114 

Manufactures, Hamilton's report on, in 17'.t], great progress in 195 

Manufactures, household, destroyed after peace of 17H?, 195 

Manufacturing industry, new Era of, begins in 1814 99 

Masses of matter, man's power over 5(5 

Materalism in science 251 

Material interests become social virtues 2G1 

McCuUoch and followers, their general niaxiiu of trade falsified 214 

McCulloch on territorial division of labor 158 

Mc(!'unoch's doctrine of disproportion of man and food 43 

Mediterranean border lauds, exceptional races of. 26 

JNlerchant, a producer, the besetting sin 288 

Merchant class supported by the consumers 298 

Metallic money, estimated increase of lit) 

Metallic money, faults of .- 150 

Metals, precious, efl'eefs of vast increase of. 131 

Metals, the precious, their qualities 110 

Mexico, Cuba, and Sp.iin, in the same l>elt of temperature 34 

Mi<ldlemen, merchants, history and functions of 287 

Middle States, cast and west, the middle zone 38 

MtOUATION and OCCtjrATION OF THK KAIJTII 33 

Military system reformed ^ 251 

Mill bases his theory of political economy upon despair 45 

Mill, corroborates Malthus 44^ 

hopeless even of emigration as a remedy 44 

Mill, John Stewart, scare at the exhaustion of English coal 63 

Mill, population must overgrow provision of food 45 

Millionaires' insignificance to the wealth of the millions 291 

Mill's equivalence of money to values exchanged 123 

Mineral kingdom, order of human control of GO 

Money, a medium of exchange, but not a, standard of value 90 

Moiin/ as a prodiircr of values 120 

stimulous of its Influx 121 

Money ax an exchanger of values 1 06 

Money by excess cannot overstinuilate industry 137 



INDEX. 357 

Money, change in the value of, since time of Henry VIIT 112 

Money demand affected by the credit system 117 

Money early goes into association 283 

Money, effect of iibundance and scarcity of 124 

Money, equivalence of to value of commodities in exchange 115 

Money, fallacy of the doctrine that it is only an exchanger 129 

Money in circulation, amount prior to 1860 123 

Money increase, effects of. 128 

Money, par value of, defined 128 

Money, increase of, cheapens commodities faster than its own exchange 

value declines 131 

Money, increase of, effect upon value of debts 130 

'Money, its essential property is in its convenience 151 

Money, its value is its labor cost 129 

Money-lenders or partners 284 

Money, metallic, without credit, is alow stage of barbaric barter 135 

Money measured by its exchange equivalence 91 

Money, mystery of 156 

Money, not a standard of value, but of payment... 112 

Money is not dead capital 122 

Money, not the equivalent of total exchanges 123 

Money of account, dispenses with the money medium 118 

Money of account, its equivalence to values in exchange 129 

Money of all kinds, of East Indies, American Indians 109 

Money, substantial, subject to the same law as other commodities 137 

Money, supply of, not limited as in the case of food 117 

Money, there never has been enough of it 130 

Money, use of, diminishing relatively in England 118 

Money values, not the directory in international trade 172 

Monopolies, how fostered, and their overthrow 290 

Moors superior to the Caucasian Spaniards in the thirteenth and four- 
teenth centuries 30 

Moral improvement in restraint of fecundity 81 

Morals, dependence of, upon induhjlrial freedom 12 

Mortality of the race in disordered conditions, extremely great 78 

Napoleon, on political economy 191 

Napoleon's popular loan 326 

National banks, amount of deposits 259 

National bank notes, amount in circulation 145 

National banking system, requires amendment 153 

National debt, how paid off -00 

Nativities of people of the United States 35 

Natural laws, adjustment of, to varied conditions 43 



358 INDEX. 

Nature has not the compound pulley, the screw, or the wheel and axle 54 

Nature in rebellion against human authority 16 

Nature's resistance to man's control 54 

Negroes in the childhood of the race 28 

Negroes not to be judged by the present standard of rank 28 

Negroes, the ballot their defense 219 

only skilled labor can really emancipate them 220 

Negroes, women and foreigners, excluded from 0. U. A. M 278 

Nervous, and reproductive systems, antagonists 79 

Nervous system, relations of, to viability 78 

Net protits, per centage of, defect in principle and policy 320 

New England and Canada, the northern zone 38 

Newspapers and books published in 1800 255 

Nineteenth century, prospects and promise of 31 

Notes, in the rebellion, the only American money 147 

Notes issued by government 145 

amount issued 1 45 

Notes of the Federal Government, the work done by 146 

O 

Occupancy of unlike climates merely military and commercial 31 

Odd Fellows, geographic distribution of, law of climate 268 

Odd Fellows, proportion of, to the voters of the Union 269 

Odd Fellows, political importance of, amount of funds 270 

Odd Fellows, origin, success — negroes and women excluded; Rebekah 

degree, a female collateral branch 265 

Odd Fellows, statistics of the Order 267 

expense of membership ; rate of growth ; death rate of 267 

suspensions and expulsions; oft'enses of expelled members 268 

Offences, capital, number in England, diminution of 256 

Opinion, force of, infixing wages 96 

Order, laws of, work through disorder 293 

Order of life, a true, will secure abundance 84 

Order of society, the true, delivers from evil 12 

Orders, the order of the day 280 

Organization, implies diversity in agreement 28 

Organization of difterences 217 

Overtrading in foreign imports, only, injures the national finances 201 

Over-population theory, protest of philosophy and philanthrophy 73 

P 

Paper money 133 

Paper money, depreciation of 115 

Participation in profits as extra wages 320, 321 

Patriarchism, an unchecked despotism, and the type of all known 
despotisms 19 



INDEX. 359 

Patriarchism, the family rule viciously extended 249 

productive industry begins ; property in the soil; money; com- 
merce initiated ; slavery of men and women, worse than 
the chattel slavery of modern times, and less favorable than 

barbaric bondage 23 

Pauperism, provision for 255 

People, the, safe against their oppressors 292 

Periodical literature, growth of in ten years 255 

Perry, professor, his labor market 328 

Pennsylvania's political economists 5 

Pennsylvania, representative State of the Union 4 

Petroleum replaces turpentine 63 

Philosophy, the inductive, compelled to assume provision of means for 

expectant ends 75 

Political Economy, answers none of the demands of business 1 74 

Political Economy, Daniel Webster and Napoleon, on 191 

Political Economy, definition of 9 

subjects of 9 

Political Economy has not yet cut its wisdom teeth 62 

Political Economy lacks the characteristics of a science 297 

Political Economy, limits of its province; moral, political, and religious 

relations of 11 

Political Economy, national as opposed to cosmopolitan 174, 177 

Political Economy, its doctrines must vary with conditions 177 

Political Economy, vicious generalizations of 32 

Political Economy, Whately's, definition of — Carey's 163 

Political unions, accommodate specialties of the various races 37 

Population and products of France 47 

Population, annual products and distributive average shares in United 

States, France, and Great Britain 52 

Population, density of, in Europe and America 67 

Population, density of, in Great Britain 49 

Population, density of, in Middle States compared with that of France 48 

Populations, enoi'mous, of antiquity 78 

Population, laiu of increase 71 

rate of increase in the United States ; in Great Britain, Prussia, 

and France 71 

Popular loan in United States 325 

Population of British West Indies 34 

Population of Europe, but sixty-five to the square mile 63 

Population of the United States, doubles in twenty-three and one-half 

years; wealth in eight and one-half years 49 

Population, room enough in Europe and America for nineteen times 

their present number ,. 62 

Population, self-regulative 83 



360 INDEX. 

Population, varied rate of increase of, in nationalities nearly alike 71 

Portugal, free trade in, and results 245 

Potatoes, in France 48 

Poverty, not commended by the Great Teacher 12 

Precious metals, value of, is the cost of their production 114 

Price, selling, of no consequence in cooperative stores 3U3 

Prices at New York, not raised by influx of money 115 

Prices, causes aflfecting 101 

Prices, decline of, since 1817 ; and from 1855 to 1860 125 

Prices, fall of, sixty per cent in English exports in thirty-five years 'J2 

Prices, fluctuations of 100 

Prices, how reduced by protective duties 226 

Prices in England, reflected efl'ect of on our crops 188 

Prices of foreign goods regulated by domestic competition 225 

Prices of laud and labor rise ; of products, decline 12G 

Produce, annual, the measure of provision for men 4'.) 

Production, definition of 107 

Production in geometrical ratio to the money imjmlse 122 

Production of food in the oldest countries increases tiO 

Products, domestic, proportion to foreign imports 169 

Products, of 1860 over 1850, in detail , 51 

I'roducts of manufactures, value of, in 1850 and 1860 in United States 03 

Productive industry, its conditions 292 

Productive industry, necessary to growth of man and of societies 17 

Profits, larger, depend upon higher wages 89 

Profits, net, in the ratio of sales 302 

Progress in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 31 

Progress of tlie last five centuries, character and aim of 250 

Property in United States, pro rata share in 1850 and 1860 49 

Protective doctrine of our statesmen forty years ago; errors of. 207 

Protective duties hold prices down 226 

Protection and free trade 190 

Protection, distributes and adapts the industries to all capacities 223, 227 

Protection, doctrine and policy of 204 

Protection does not regard market values 211 

Protection favors growth of trade in money value 215 

Protection in Prussia, Belgium, France, Kussia 239, 240, 241, 242 

Protection in the historic nations 235 

Protection is not arrayed against foreign trade, but promotes it 215 

Protection, its influence in economic value of trade 215 

Protection, means free domestic trade ; its guiding rules 208 

Protection, objections to 221 

Protective policy in national history and destiny 246 

Protection the reciprocal of allegiance 223 

Protection unjustly classed with obsolete abuses 222 



INDEX. 361 

Protection, what it is 205 

Protection aims at diversification of domestic industides 215 

Protection secures and defends the opportunity of free labor 224 

Proverbs concerning wealtli and power, not true 290 

Provisions, exports of, prices governed by quantities 188 

Provision for liuman needs, moves faster than population 52 

Pyramids and poor-houses.... 261 

Q 

Quantity of action of any of the functions not lixed.. 80 



Races, laws of, regulating German, Italian and Austrian nationalities 37 

Races, none of them cosmopolitan". 32 

Ramsay and Belknap. 196 

Rank and right of rule, determined , 30 

Railroads monopolize their traffic 288 

Railroads of England, burdens and rapidity of transportation 56 

Rails, steel, imported, price falls under increased duties 229 

Rate of increase of production in United States, in decade 1850-60 50 

Piaw material, in manufactures, average value of 169 

Raw materials, proportion of value of, to products.. : 93 

Reformed drunkards, proselytism 372 

PteCormers, knowledge necessary to.... 12 

Religion and race will not account for the ruin of the nations that have 

adopted free trade 246 

Remedies in history for monopoly of power 289 

P^epublic, the great, its influences 253 

Fteproductive function, not a constant quantity 72 

Reserved rights, the ruling aim of modern progress 250 

Residents of United States, only seven per cent of, out of their natal 

climate 35 

Retail stores, their cost and burden to the poor 298 

Revenue from customs under our protective and unprotective tariffs.... 213 
Revenue, only an incident to protection, but invariably follows it; 

proof, in the tables of customs' duties 213 

Revenue reformers reduce themselves to $25,000,000 of revenue from 

customs , ; 232 

Revolution in political government, returning to order 251 

Revolutions, intellectual and religious in the fifteenth century 31 

Fievulsions neither inevitable nor inexplicable 201 

Revulsion, imminent in 1860, postponed and averted by the Pvebellion 

and the Morrill tariff 203 

Ricardo, on increasing sterility of the earth 44 

Rights, not duties, the drift of modern democracy , , 250 



362 INDEX. ' 

Rochdale Pioneers ; origin ; capital ; results in twenty-two years of trial ; 

financial history; details of a grand success; self-help 300,301 

Roman money, comparative value of 113 

Runiaus, resided only in Italy 34 

Rudiments of all tjie higher forms, in savage society 18 

Russia, communes describetl 311 

governmen t of . . .• 312 

Russian merchants, small proportion to the population 312 

Russian population, ninety per cent rural 312 

Russia, protective system, its results 2-12 

S 

Saturn, reign of, on earth 15 

Sauagism, the earliest stage of society koown to philosophy 16 

Savage life, badly provided for 64 

Savage society, analogous to individual infancy 18 

Savage state, no capital, no wages, no division of labor 86 

Savage tribes, limited indust)-y of 16 

Savages, the rule of the strongest , 17 

Savings banks, in New England 259 

Savings banks in United States, history of 259 

Savings banks, origin and extent of. 257 

amount of deposits held in England; depositors in 257 

parliamentary regulation of 258 

their excellent service 258 

Schools, common, in the United States 254 

in l^russia 254 

Schools, common, resistance of the House of Lords in 1830 254 

Schulize, Herman 306, 308 

Sciences, the natural, built upon the harmonics of nature Ta 

Scotland, banks of, excellence of the system 151 

principles upon which they are conducted 152 

popularity of 152 

Secret orders, almost innumerable; list of those in the City of 

Philadelphia 276 

Secret orders, difl'er from the religious sects in their relations to each 

• other 273 

membership in them multiplied with proportionate benefits se- 
cured 278 

Secret orders, immense extension of 2(55 

Secret orders of colored people 279 

Secret orders, universal meiiibersliip in, of the provident poor .. 279 

Selfhood the basis of the Political Economy in vogue 250 

Service value, Frederick Bastiat 87 

Secret societies 264 



INDEX. 363 

Slave trade, a hundred years ago, its abolition 253 

Smith, Adam, on effect of influx of money... 117 

Smith, Adam, on service of paper representatives of money 135 

Smith, Say, and Mill, their dogma of competition 327 

Societary forces, three classes of 252 

Societary growth, stages of 250 

Societary movements, their characteristics 249 

Sons of Temperance, beneficial provisions 273 

Sons of Temperance, progress and decline of 274 

Sophism of free traders, in respect to natural advantages of climate 

and soil 216 

Sources of advancement in wealth , 54 

Space not conquered as time is by the telegraph 165 

Spain, cooperation in , 311 

Spencer Herbert , , 84 

Spiritualism in science 251 

Springs, material and moral, in society 260, 282 

Standard of value impossible 113 

Statistical calculations and estimates 104 

Statistics of trade and production, differences of the authorities 167 

Steam and machinery, increase wages 99 

Strike of workingmen in Lower Silesia 314 

Substitution, instances of, vegetable for animal, and mineral for both... 64 

Substitution of the abundant and cheap, for the scarce and dear 63 

Substitutions of cheaper and more abundant commodities, table of. 67 

Suffrage and idleness 219 

Suffering not greater than sin, and orderly and necessary 60 

Sugar, beet-root, in France 48 

S'w/'er-natural, in the mechanical powers 54 

"Supply and demand," abuse of the maxim 327 

T 

Tariff act, the first, preamble of 196 

Tariff acts from 1789 to 1812 197 

Tariff of 1824, compelled by universal distress 198 

Tariffs of 1824 and 1828, errors of 198 

Tariff of 1828, gave abundant revenue along with adequate protection 199 

Tariff of 1842, imports under per capita 202 

Tariff of 1842, modified in 1846 201 

Tariff' of 1846, its general character 201 

Tariff of 1857, imports under per capita 202 

Tariffs for revenue always fail of their intention 213 

Tariff" for revenue with incidental protection, absurdity of 210 

Temperance pledge, in numerous secret orders 276 

Temperance reform, origin and progress of 272 



364: INDEX. 

TempeiHUce reform, origin and spread 253 

Textile fabrics and metallic products unlimited 58 

Theories, erroneous, of Political Economy, based upon facts in disorder 4l 

Thompson, George, picture of British rule in India 215 

Tobacco, 'exports, value of 187 

Trade lietweeu nations diversely situated 176 

Trade disintegrates the man and the comuiunity 101, 1(12 

Trade in natural products, should be across climates ]7o 

Trade in artificial products 175 

Trade, international, contributions to support of old countries GI 

Trade legitimate, indicating its course 187 

Trade maritime, not a peace-maker Itjo 

Trade, must be complementary, not competitive 173 

Trade of England, which imports no manufactures 215 

Trade of France, which excludes luauufactures 215 

Trade reports, uncertainly and inaccuracy of 167 

Trade unions, the insurrections that, make revolutions 203 

Trader's philosophy, a justification of the disorders of business 328 

Transportation, consuming cost of 107 

merchants of old 108 

Transportation, defies and defeats competition 288 

Trausportation, exhaustive cost of 183 

Transportation, rapidly growing into masterdom 28i) 

Transportation, relative value of foreign and domestic goods 169 

Treason, only a misdemeanor in the United Slates 256 

Tropical products, duties on, enhance price to consumers 225 

Turkey, debasement of the coin , 244 

history of her manufactures 243 

Turkey, her free trade, audits results 243 

Turkeyj internal trade of, in the hands of foreign peddlers 243 

U 

Union of interests and efforts, force of 302 

United American Meclianics, constitution and objects, members, growth, 

cost of reliefs 277 

United States, capabilities and growth of; their work ; their people, 

and their destiny 193 

rapid and frequent changes in their commercial policy 194 

repression of their manufactures when they were Colonics 194 

United States, capital, wealth, and rate of increase of 49 

United States, favorable conditions of , 316, 317 

y 

Value, defiuition of 87,89 

Value, exchange standard of, impossible 113 



Value, economic, of imports, distinguished from money vakie.,.. 166 

Value of exports and imports, per capita 165 

Value of products declines as land and labor rise 89 

Velocity gained by steam-power and machinery 56 

Viability and fecundity adjusted to each other * 78 

W 

Wages : .' 86 

Wages, accumulations of, in United States, afford a sufficient capital to 

make the laborers self-employing 324 

Wages and capital, proportions of, in the products 97 

AVages and capital, proportion of profits on manufacture , 93 

Wages and food 102 

Wages, comparative value, in 1814 and in 1860 103 

Wages doubled in England in 112 years 92 

Wages, English, in the 17th century 91 

Wages, equitable increase in, under the law of distribution 88 

Wages, growth of, governed by a general law 94 

Wages, how affected by protection and free trade 227 

Wages in the United States, increase fifteen per cent in ten years, 

double in forty- seven years. 94 

Wages, increase of, due to cooperating capital, but not at its loss 95 

Wages keep pace with growth of general wealth.. 94 

Wages, leveling tendency in rise of 99 

Wages, nominal and real 90 

Wages of men doubled in money, increased fourfold in purchasing power. 

over their own products 102 

Wages of skilled labor in 17th century, and rise of in 18th and 19th 

centuries 90 

Wages of women have tripled, while those of men doubled 98 

Wages outgrow the profits of cooperating capital. '. 94 

Wages, provision for increase of, traced to its source 95 

Wages, proportion of, to value of products 98 

Wages rise in proportion to productiveness of capital and labor 93 

Wages rise in the inverse ratio of the cost of products 93 

Wages rise with increase of money, why 125 

Wages rise with profits 89 

Wages, rise of, with decline of price in commodities 92 

Wages system, its character.... 284 

Wages, the index of productiveness 103 

War, origin of, among savages 16 

Washington's domestic coat 196 

AVashington on the happy results of the first tariff act 196 

Waste of life not required to correct its excess 42 

Water gas, an equalizer of national industries 68 



366 INDEX. 

Water gas, will replace Englanil's exhauf5ted coal 68 

Wealth and population, relative growth of, in Great Britain 47 

Wealth, answers to culture under natural laws 41 

Wealth, British, how estimated 46 

Weight carried on English railroads .. 56 

Wealth, distribution of 86 

Wealth, distribution of, in barbarism — in civilization 86 

Wealth, distributive shares, double in England in twenty-five years 47 

Wealth, growth of, accelerating in Great Britain 45 

Wealth, growth of, according to Gladstone 46 

Wealth, growth of English, since she used American cotton G2 

Wealth, growth of, in Great Britain, according to Joseph Lowe 45 

Wealth, growth of, in Great Britain, according to Leone Levi 45 

Wealth, growth of, its indications 57 

Wealth, growth of the general ; power of capital over labor '2W 

Wealth, increases in England three and one-half per cent per annum, 
doubling once in twenty years, or two and a half times faster than 

population 46 

Wealth, in United States, average share of inhabitants 49 

Wealth is power at compound interest 41 

Wealth of England, mode of estimating it 167 

Wealth of the masses 325 

Wealth of the people in contrast with that of the rich 291 

Wealth, the laws and conditions of its gkowtii 40 

Wealth, the measure of man's power over nature 41 

Webster, Daniel, on Political Economy 191 

Whale fisheries, conducted by cooperation 324 

Wheat, grown in France 48 

Wheat, home consumption of 185 

Wheat, in England, quantity to the acre 61 

Wheat in the United States, average crop of 61 

Wheat, Mediterranean, grown on the Oldest soil in Europe 61 

Wheat, potatoes, and animal food, equivalents of 65 

Wheat, price of in 1661, 1846, and 1865, in England 91 

Wheat, unchanged in price in 170 years 92 

Williamson and Marshall, on the distresses of the period preceding the 

Federal Union 195 

Women and negroes, excluded by K. of B 272 

Women and negroes excluded from Order of Odd Fellows 266 

Women, being more and more admitted into secret orders 279 

Women employed in manufactures, number and wages 218 

Women excluded by S. of T., till lately 275 

causes of ilecline of the Order »- 275 

Women, improved condition of 101 

wages, real, increased six times in 50 years 102 



INDEX. 367 

Women, statistics of their employments in 1860 219 

Women, their dependence upon diversitied industry 217 

Women, their interest in protection ; must work if they would rule 218 

Women, wages of, have tripled while those of men doubled 98 

Women, wages of, proportion to those of men..., 93 

Women's wages, rise in purchasing power 101 

Workingmen's union in Prussia, principles of 313 

Y 

Young, Arthur, estimate of relative increase of money and prices 124 

Z 

Zollverein, its happy adaptation to German industry 211 

ZoUverein, principle of protection discarded valuations 211 

Zollverein, results of, in Germany , 212 



CATALOGUE 

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tional matter and plates, selections from and examples of the 
most useful and generally employed mechanism of the day. 
By William Johnson, Assoc. Inst. C. E., Editor of "The 
Practical Mechanic's Journal." Illustrated by 50 folio steel 
plates and 50 wood-cuts. A new edition, 4to. . $10 00 

A SLOT.— A COMPLETE GUIDE FOS COACH PAHSTTESS. 

' Translated from the French of M. Arlot, Coaeh Painter; late 
Master Painter for eleven years with M. Ebrler, Coach Manufac- 
turer, Paris. With important American additions . . §1 25 

A EROWSMITH.— PAPEE-HANGEE'S COMPAHIOK" : 

A Treatise in which the Practical Operations of the Trade are 
Systematically laid down: with Copious Directions Prepara- 
tory to Papering ; Preventives against the Effect of Damp on 
Walls; the Various Cements and Pastes adapted to the Seve- 
ral Purposes of the Ti'ade; Observations and Directions foi* 
the Panelling and Ornamenting of Rooms, &c. By J.vmes 
AerowSvIith. 12mo., cloth . . . . . §1 25 



HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 



■DA.IIID.— THE AMERICAN COTTON SPINNER, AND MANA- 

■^ GER'S AND CARDER'S GUIDE: 

A Practicnl Treatise on Cotton Spinning; giving the Uimen- 
sions and Speed of Machinerj', Draught and Twist Calcula- 
tions, etc. ; with notices of recent Improvements : together 
■with Rules and Examples for making changes in the sizes and 
numbers of Roving and Yarn. Compiled from the papers of 
the late Robert II. Baibd. 12mo. • . . $1 50 

■DAKER.— LONG-SPAN RAILWAY BRIDGES : 

Comprising Investigations of the Comparative Theoretical and 
Practical Advantages of the various Adopted or Proposed Type 
Systems of Construction; with numerous Formulae and Ta- 
bles. By B. Baker. 12mo $2 00 

"DAKEWELL — A MANUAL OF ELECTRICITY— PRACTICAL AND 

•" THEORETICAL : 

By F. C. Bakewell, Inventor of the Copying Telegraph. Se- 
cond Edition. Prevised and enlarged. Illustrated by nume- 
rous engravings. 12mo. Cloth . . . . $2 00 

"DEANS —A TREATISE ON RAILROAD CURVES AND THE LO- 
^ CATION OF RAILROADS : 

By E. W. Beans, C. E. 12mo. (In press.) 

■pLENKARN,— PRACTICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF WORKS EXE- 
^ CUTED IN ARCHITECTURE, CIVIL AND MECHANICAL 

ENGINEERING, AND IN ROAD MAKING AND SEWER- 

ING: 

To which are added a series of practically usef«l Agreements 
and Reports. By John Blenkaen. Illustrated by fifteen 
large folding plates. 8vo. . . . . . .^9 00 

-pLINN.— A PRACTICAL WORKSHOP COMPANION FOR TIN, 
•^ SHEET-IRON, AND COPPER-PLATE WORKERS : 

Containing Rules for Describing various kinds of Patterns 
used by Tin, Sheet-iron, and Copper-plate Workers ; Practical 
Geometrj- ; jSIensuration of Surfaces and Solids; Tables of the 
Weight of Metals, Lead Pipe, etc.; Tables of Areas and Cir- 
cumferences of Circles; Japans, Varnisl>es, Lackers, Cements, 
Compositions, etc. etc. By Leroy J. Blinn, Master Me- 
chanic. With over One Hundred Illustrations. 12mo. $2 60 



HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 



D30TH.-MAEELE WOEKEE'S MAHUAL : 

Containing Practical Information respecting Marbles in gene- 
ral, their Cutting, Working, and Polishing ; Veneering of 
Marble ; Mosaics ; Composition and Use of Artificial Marble, 
Stuccos, Cements, Receipts, Secrets, etc. etc. Translated 
from the French by M, L. Booth. With an Appendix con- 
cerning American Marbles. 12mo., cloth . . $1 50 

■pOOTH AND MOEFIT.— THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHEMISTEY, 
PEACTICAL AND THEOEETICAL : 

Embracing its application to the Arts, Metallurgy, Mineralogy, 
Geology, Medicine, and Pharmacy. By James C. Booth, 
Melter and Refiner in the United States Mint, Professor of 
Applied Chemistry in the Franklin Institute, etc., assisted by 
Campbell Morfit, author of "Chemical Manipulations," etc. 
Seventh edition. Complete in one volume, royal 8vo., 978 
pages, with numerous wood-cuts and other illustrations. $5 00 

DDWDITCH.— ANALYSIS, TECHNICAL VALUATION, PUEIEI- 

•^ CATION, AND USE OF COAL GAS : 

By Rev. W. R. Bowditch. Illustrated with wood engrav- 
ings. 8vo. . . . . , . . . ^6 50 

•DOX.— PEACTICAL HYDRAULICS : 

A Series of Rules and Tables for the use of Engineers, etc. 
By Thomas Box. 12mo. $2 00 

■DUCKMASTES.— THE ELEMENTS OF MECHANICAL PHYSICS : 
By J. C. BucKMASTER, late Student in the Government School 
of Alines ; Certified Teacher of Science by the Department of 
Science and Art ; Examiner in Chemistry and Physics in the 
Royal College of Preceptors ; and late Lecturer in Chemistry 
and Physics of the Royal Polytechnic Institute. Illustrated 
with numerous engravings. In one vol. 12mo. . $1 50 

•DULLOCK.— THE AMERICAN COTTAGE EUILDEE : 

A Series of Designs, Plans, and Specifications, from $200 to 
to $20,000 for Homes for the People; together with Warm- 
ing, Ventilation, Drainage, Painting, and Landscape Garden- 
ing. By John Bullock, Architect, Civil Engineer, Mechani- 
cian, and Editor of "The Rudiments of Architecture and 
Building," etc. Illustrated by 75 engravings. In one vol. 
Svo §3 5(ji 



HENRY CAREY BAIRD'Sl f ATALo^XTB. 



•d7ll9ck. — the eudiiieiits 0.7 arxiiitzc^zit-re and 
^ Building : 

For the use of Architects, Builders, Draughtsmen, Machin- 
ists, Engineers, and Mechanics. Edited by John Bullock, 
author of "The American Cottage Builder." Illustrated hy 
250 engravings. In one volume 8vo. . . . ?o 50 

•nURGH.— PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF LAND AND MA- 

•'-' RINE ENGINES : 

Showing in detail the Modern Improvements of High and Low 
Pressure, Surface Condensation, and Super-heating, together 
with Land and Marine Boilers. By N. P. Biirgii, Engineer. 
Illustrated by twenty plates, double elephant folio, with text. 

§21 00 

•DTJRGH— PRACTICAL RULES FOR THE PP.OPORTIONS GF 

^ MODERN ENGINES AND BOILERS FOR LAND AND MA- 
RINE PURPOSES. 
By N. P. BuRGti, Engineer. 12mo. . . . $2 GO 

■pURGH.— THE SLIDE-VALVE PRACTICALLY CONSIDERED : 

By N. P. BuRGii, author of " A Treatise on Sugar Machinery," 
"Practical Illustrations of Land and Marine Engines," "A 
Pocket-Book of Practical Rules for Designing Land and Ma- 
rine Engines, Boilers," etc. etc. etc. Completely illustrated. 

12mo $2 00 

DYRN.— THE COMPLETE PRACTICAL BREWER : 

Or, Plain, Accurate, and Thorough Instructions in the Art of 
Brewing Beer, Ale, Porter, including the Process of making 
Bavarian Beer, all the Small Beers, such as Pioot-becr, Ginger- 
pop, Sarsaparilla-beer, ]\Iead, Spi'uce beer, etc. etc. Adapted 
to the use of Public Brewers and Private Families. By M. L.\ 
Fayette Byrn, M. D. With illustrations. J2mo. $1 25 

■nYRTi".— THE COMPLETE PRACTICAL DISTILLER : 

Comprising the most perfect and exact Theoretical and Prac- 
tical Description of the Art of Distillation and Rectification , 
including all of the most recent improvements in distilling 
apparatus; instructions for preparing spirits from the nume- 
rous vegetables, fruits, etc. ; directions for the distillation and 
Dreparation of all kinds of brandies and other spirits, spiritu- 
ous and other compounds, etc. etc. ; all of which is so simpli- 
fied that it is adapted not only to the use of extensive distil- 
lers, but for every farmer, or others who may wish to engago 
in the art of distilling By M. L.v Fayettio Byiin, ^I. D. 
With numerous engravings. la one volume, 12rao. $1 50 



HEXRT CAREY. BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 



BYRNE.— POCKET BaoX FOE RAILED AD Al'TD CIVIL ENGI- 
■^ NEEES: 

Containing New, Exact, and Concise Methods for Laying oiu 
Railroad Curves, Switches, Frog Angles and Crossings: tha 
Staking out of work; Levelling; the Calculation of Cut- 
tings; Embankments; Earth-work, etc. By Oliver Btene. 

Illustrated, ISmo., full bound . . . . . $1 75 

■pYRNE.— THE HAIfDBOOK FOE THE ARTISAN, MECHANIC, 
AND ENGINEER : 

Hy Olivee Byuki;. Illustnited by 1S5 Vrood Engravings. Svn. 

$5 00 

•pYENE.—THE ESSENTIAL ELE3IEN7S 07 PEACTICAL ML- 

•^ CHANIC3 : 

For Engineering Students, based on the Principle of Work. 
By Oliver Byrne. Illustrated by Numerous Wood Engrav- 
ings, 12mo. . . . . . . . . !$.3 63 

gYRNE.— THE PRACTICAL METAL-WORKER'S ASSISTANT: 
Comprising Metallurgic Chemistry ; the Arts of Working all 
Metals and Alloys ; Forging of Iron and Steel ; Hardening and 
Tempering ; Melting and Mixing ; Casting and Founding ; 
Works in Sheet Metal; the Processes Dependent on the 
Ductility of the Metals ; Soldering ; and the most Improved 
Processes and Tools employed by Metal-Workers. With the 
Application of the Art of Electro-Metallurgy to Manufactu- 
ring Processes; collected from Original Sources, and from the 
Works of HoltzapfFel, Bergeron, Leupold, Plumier, Napier, and 
others. By Oliver Byrne. A New, Revised, and improved 
Edition, with Additions by John Scoffern, M. B , William Clay, 
Wra. Fairbairn, F. R. S., and James Napier. With Five Hun- 
dred and Ninety-two Engravings; Illustrating every Branch 
of the Subject. In one volume, 8vo. 652 pages . §7 GO 

■DYRNE.— THE PRACTICAL MODEL CALCULATOR: 

For the Engineer, Mechanic, Manufacturer of Engine Work, 
Naval Architect, Miner, and Millwright. By Oliver Byrne. 
1 volume, 8vo., nearly 600 pages • . . , .$4 50 

JEMROSS.— MANUAL OF WOOD CARVINS : With Prnotical 11- 
lustrjitions for Learners of the Art, and Original and Selected de- 
signs. By William Bejieose, Jr. With an Introduction by 
Llewellyn Jeavitt,F. S. A., etc. With 128 Illustrations. 4to., 



cJoth 



$3 00 



B 



HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 

AIRD.— PROTECTION OF H3ME LABOS AND HOME PSO- 

BUCTIONS NECESSARY TO THE PEOSPEKITY OP THE 

AMERICAN FARMER: 

By Henry Carey Baird. 8vo., paper . . . . 10 



DAIED.— THE EIGHTS OF AMERICAN PRODUCERS, AND THE 

•^ WRONGS OF BRITISH FREE TRADE REVENUE REFORM. 

By Heney Carey Baird. (1870) .... 5 

■pAIRD.— SOME OF THE FALLACIES OF BRITISH-FREE-TRADE 

■^ REVENUE-REFORM. 

Two Letters to Prof. A. L. Perry, of Williams College, Mass. By 
Henry Carey Baird. (1871.) Paper .... 5 

•DAIRD.— STANDARD WAGES COMPUTING TABLES : 

An Improvement in all former Methods of Computation, so ar- 
ranged that wages for days, hours, or fractions of hours, at a spe- 
cified rate per day or hour, may be ascertained at a glance. By 
T. Spangler Baird. Oblong folio $5 CO 



B 



AUERMAN.— TREATISE ON THE METALLURGY OF IRON. 
Illustrated. 12mo $2 50 



-DICKNELL'.S VILLAGE BUILDER. 

^ 65 large plates. 4to $10 GO 

"piSHOP.— A HISTORY OF AMERICAN MANUFACTURES : 

From 10)08 to 1866 ; exhibiting the Origin and Growth of the Prin- 
cipal Mechanic Arts and Manufactures, from the Earliest Colonial 
Period to the Present Time ; By J. Leander Bishop, M. D., Ed- 
ward YouNS, and Edwin T. Freedley. Three vols. 8vo., half 
morocco ,',.....■•• vjl2 00 

•pox.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON HEAT AS APPLIED TO 

^ THE USEFUL ARTS : 

For the use of Engineers, Architects, etc. By Thomas Box, au- 
thor of "Practical Hydraulics." Illustrated by li plates, con- 
taining 114 figures. 12mo. . . . . . . $4 25 

nABINET MAKER'S ALBUM OF FURNITURE : 

Comprising a Collection of Designs for the Newest and Most 
Elegant Styles of Furniture. Illuptrated by Forty-eight Large 
and Beautifully Engraved Plates. In one volume, oblong 

$5 00 

pHAPMAN.— A TREATISE ON rv,OPE-MAKING : 

As practised in private and public Rope-j^ards, with a Description 
of the Manufacture, Rules, Tables of Weights, etc., adapted to the 
Trade ; Shipping, Mining, Railways, Builders, etc. By Robert 
Chapman. 24mo » . • . $1 50 



HENRY CAHEY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 



pKAIK.— THE PEACTICAL AMERICAN MILLWRIGHT AND 
^ MILLER. 

Comprising the Elementary Principles of Mechanics, Me- 
chanism, and Motive Power, Hydraulics and Hydraulic 
Motors, Mill-dams, Saw Mills, Grist Mills, the Oat Meal Mill, 
the Barley Mill, Wool Carding, and Cloth Fulling and Dress- 
ing, Wind Mills, Steam Power, &c. By David Ckaik, Mill- 
wright. Illustrated by numerous wood engravings, and five 
folding plates. 1 vol. 8vo. . . . . $5 00 

nAMPIN.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE GIT IIECHANICAL EN- 
^ GINEESING: 

Comprising Metallurgy, Moulding, Casting, Forging, Tools, 
Workshop Machinery, Mechanical Manipulation, Manufacture 
of Steam-engines, etc. etc. With an Appendix on the Ana- 
lysis of Iron and Iron Ores. By Francis Campin, C. E. To 
■which are added. Observations on the Construction of Steam 
Boilers, and Remarks upon Furnaces used for Smoke Preven- 
tion ; -with a Chapter on Explosions. By R, Armstrong, C. E., 
and John Bourne. Rules for Calculating the Change Wheels 
for Screws on a Turning Lathe, and for a Wheel-cutting 
Machine. By J. La Nicca. Management of Steel, including 
Forging, Hardening, Tempering, Annealing, Shrinking, and 
Expansion. And the Case-hardening of Iron. By G-. Ehe, 
8vo. Illustrated with 29 plates and 100 wood engravings. 

$6 00 

nAMPlN.— THE PRACTICE OF HAND-TURNING IN WOOD, 
^ IVORY, SHELL, ETC. ; 

With Instructions for Turning such works in Metal as may be 
required in the Practice of Turning Wood, Ivory, etc. Also 
an Appendix on Ornamental Turning. By Francis Campin , 
"with Numerous Illustrations, 12mo., cloth . . $3 00 

n APRON DE DOLE— 3USSAUCE.— BLUES AND CARMINES OP 
^ INDIGO. 

A Practical Treatise on the Fabrication of every CommerciaJ 
Product derived from Indigo. By Fjslicien Capron de Dole 
Translated, with important additions, by Professor H. Dts- 
SAUCE. 12mo. S2 50 



«! HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 



pAEEY.— THE WORKS OF HENRY C. CAREY : 

CONTRACTION OR^EXPANSION ? REPUDIATION OR RE- 
SUMPTION? Letters to Hon. Hugh McCulloch. 8vo. 88 

FINANCIAL CRISES, their Causes and Effects. 8vo. paper 

25 

HARMONY OF INTERESTS; Agricultural, Manufacturing, 

and Commercial. Svo., paper $1 00 

Do. do. cloth . , . $1 50 

LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
Paper $1 00 

MANUAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. Condensed from Carey's 
"Principles of Social Science." By Kate McKean. 1 yoI. 
12mo $2 25 

MISCELLANEOUS AVORKS: comprising "Harmony of Inter- 
ests," "Money," "Letters to the President," "French and 
American Tariffs," "Financial Crises," "The Way to Outdo 
England Tvithout Fighting Her," "Resources of the Union," 
"The Public Debt," "Contraction or Expansion," "Review 
of the Decade 1857 — 'G7," "Reconstruction," etc. etc. 1 vol. 
Svo., cloth $4 50 

MONEY: A LECTURE before the N. Y. Geographical and Sta- 
tistical Society. 8vo., paper 25 

PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. Svo. . . , $2 50 

PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. 3 volumes Svo., cloth 

$10 00 

REVIEW OF THE DECADE 1857— 'G7. Svo., paper 50 

RECONSTRUCTION: INDUSTRIAL, FINANCIAL, AND PO- 
LITICAL. Letters to the Hon. Henry Wilson, U. S. S. Svo 
paper ...... . . 50 

THE PUBLIC DEBT, LOCAL AND NATIONAL. How to 
provide for its discharge Avhile lessening the burden of Taxa- 
tion. Letter to David A. AVells, Esq., U. S. Revenue Commis- 
sion. Svo., paper ....... 25 

THE RESOURCES OF THE UNION. A Lecture read, Dec. 
1865, before the American Geographical and Statistical So- 
ciety, N. Y., and before tlie American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Social Science, Boston ... 50 

THE SLAVE TRADE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN; Why it 
Exists, and How it may be Extinguished. 12mo., cloth $1 50 



HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 



LETTERS ON INTERNATIONAL CO?YRIGnT. (18G7.) 

Taper ^*^ 

REVIEW OF THE FARMERS' QUESTION. (1870.) Paper 25 
EESUMPTION! HOW IT MAY PROFITABLY EE BROUGHT 

AROUT. (1869.) 8vo., paper .... 50 

REVIEW OF THE REPORT OF HON. B. A. WELLS, Special 

Commissioner of the Revenue. (18G9.) 8vo., paper 50 

SHALL WE HAVE PEACE? Pence Financial and Peace Poll- 

ticaL Letters to the Presid'ent Elect. (18G8.) 8vo., paper 50 
THE FINANCE MINISTER AND THE CURRENCY, AND 

THE PUBLIC DEBT. (18G8.) 8vo., paper . . 50 

THE WAY TO OUTDO ENGLAND WITHOUT FIGHTING 

HER. Letters to Hon. Schuyler Colfax. (1865.) Bvo., paper 

$1 CO 

I WEALTH ! OF WHAT DOES IT CONSIST ? (1870.) Paper 25 

nAMTJS.-A TEEATISE 0^ THE TEETH OF WHEELS : 
^ Demonstrating the best forms which can be given to them for the 
purposes of Machinery, such as Mill-work and Clock-work. Trans- 
lated from the French of M. Camus. By John I. Hawkins. 
Illustrated by 40 plates. 8vo ^3 00 

nOXE.— ffiliniTG LEGISLATION, 

^ A paper read before the Am. Social Science Association. By 

EcKLEY B. CoxE. Paper ...••• ^0 

nOLBTJIlIif .— THE GAS-WORKS OF LONDOH : 
^ Comprising a sketch of the Gas-works of the city. Process of 

Manufacture, Quantity Produced, Cost, Profit, etc. By Zerah 

COLBURN. 8V0., cloth "^ 

nOLBUEN.-THE LOCOMOTIVE EHGINE : 

^ Including a Description of its Structure, Rules for Estimat- 
ing its Capabilities, and Practical Observations on its Construc- 
tio^n and Management. By Zerah Colburn. Illustrated. A 

new edition. 12mo ^^ ^^ 

nOLBUEN AND MAW.-THE WATEE-V/OEKS OF LOlfDOlT: 
^ Together with a Series of Articles on various other Water- 
works. By Zerah Colburn and W. Maw. Reprinted from 
" Engineering." In one volume, 8vo. . . §4 00 
■n^GUEEEEOTYPIST AND PHOTOGEAPEEE'S COMPAinO^T:^^ 
■^ 12mo., clotli ^^ -'^ 



10 IIEXRY CAREY BAIRDS CATALOGUE. 



D 



IRCKS.— PERPETUAL MOTION : 

Or Search for Self-Motive Power during the 17tb, 18th, and 
19th centuries. Illustrated from various authentic sources in 
Papers, Essays, Letters, Paragraphs, and numerous Patent 
Specifications, with an Introductory Essay by Hexrt Dircks, 
C. E. Illustrated by numerous engravings of machines. 
l'2mo., cloth . . . . . . . . $3 50 

TjIXON.— THE PRACTICAL MILLWRIGHT'S AND ENGINEER'S 

-^ GUIDE : 

Or Tables for Finding the Diameter and Power of Cogwheels ; 
Diameter, Weight, and Power of Shafts ; Diameter and Strength 
of Bolts, etc. etc. By Thomas Dixon. 12mo., cloth. $1 50 

•nUNC AN.— PRACTICAL SURVEYOR'S GUIDE: 

Containing the necessary information to make any person, of 
common capacity, a finished land surveyor without the aid of 
a teacher. By Axdrkw Duxcax. Illustrated. 12mo., cloth. 

81 25 
"nUSSAUCE.— A NEW AND COMPLETE TREATISE ON THE 
■^ ARTS OF TANNING, CURRYING, AND LEATHER DRESS- 
ING : 

Comprising all the Discoveries and Improvements made in 
France, Great Britain, and the United States. Edited from 
Notes and Documents of Messrs. Sallerou, Grouvelle, Duval, 
Dessables, Labarraque, Payen, Ren<S, De Fontenelle, ]\Iala- 
peyre, etc. etc. By Prof. H. Dcss.wce, Chemist. Illustrated 
by 212 wood engravings. 8vo. .... $10 00 
■nUSSAUCE — A GENERAL TREATISE ON THE MANUFACTURE 
■^ OF SOAP, THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL: 

Comprising the Chemistry of the Art, a Description of all the Raw 
Materials and their Uses. Directions for the Establishment of a 
Soap Factory, with the necessary Apparatus, Instructions in the 
Manufacture of every variety of Soap, the Assay and Determination 
of the Value of Alkalies, Fatty Substances, Soaps, etc. etc. By 
Professor H. Dcssacce. With an Appendix, containing Ex- 
tracts from the Reports of the International Jury on Soaps, as 
exhibited in the Paris Universal Exposition, 1SG7, numerous 
Tables, etc. etc. Illustrated by engravings. In one volume Svo. 

of over SCO pages $10 00 

■nUSSAUCE.— PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE FABRICATION 
^ OF MATCHES, GUN COTTON, AND FULMINATING POW- 
DERS. 
Bv Professor II. DrssArcE. 12mo. . . . S:3 00 



HEXRT CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. n 



pUSSAUCE,— A PSACTICAL GUIDE FOE THE PEEFUMEE : 
Being a New Treatise on Perfumery the most favorable to the 
Beauty without being injurious to the Health, comprising a 
Description of the substances used in Perfumery, the Form- 
ulae of more than one thousand Preparations, such as Cosme- 
tics, Perfumed Oils, Tooth Powders, Waters, Extracts, Tinc- 
tures, Infusions, Yinaigres, Essential Oils, Pastels, Creams, 
Soaps, and many new Hygienic Products not hitherto described. 
Edited from Notes and Documents of Messrs. Debay, Lunel, 
etc. With additions by Professor H.DussArcE, Chemist. 12mo'. 

$3 00 

•nTJSSAUCE.-A GENEEAL TEEATISE OIT THE MAiniFACTUEE 
OF VINEGAE, THEOEETICAL AND PEACTICAL. 
-Comprising the various methods, by the slow and the quick pro- 
cesses, with Alcohol, Wine, Grain, Cider, and Molasses, as weli 
as the Fabrication of Wood Vinegar, etc. By Prof. H. Dussauce. 
i2mo. (Impress.) 

-QTIPLAIS.— A COMPLETE TEEATISE 01? TEE BISTILLATIOIT 
AND MANUFACTUEE OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUOES : 

From the French of M. Duplais. Translated and Edited by M. 
McKex.xie, M D. Illustrated by numerous large plates and wood 
engravings of the best apparatus calculated for producing the 
finest products. In one vol. royal 8vo. (Ready May 1, 1871.) 

D:^= This is a treatise of the highest scientific merit and of the 
greatest practical value, surpassing in these respects, as well as 
in the variety of its contents, any similar volume in the Eno-lish 
language. 

HE GRAFF.— THE GEOMETEICAL STAIE-BUILDEES' GUIDE: 
Being a Plain Practical System of Hand-Railing, embracing all 
its necessary Details, and Geometrically Illustrated by 22 Steel 
Engravings : together with the use of the most approved princi- 
ples of Practical Geometry. By Simon De Geaff, Architect. 
4to §5 00 

T|YEE AND COLOE-MAKEE'S COISIPANION : 

Containing upwards of two hundred Receipts for making Co- 
lors, on the most approved principles, for all the various styles 
and fabrics now in existence; with the Scouring Process, and 
plain Directions for Preparing, Washing-ofF, and Finishing the 
Goods. lu one vol. 12mo §1 25 



12 HENRY CaUEY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 

pASTON.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON STREET OR HORSE- 

•" POWER RAILWAYS : 

Their Location, Construction, and Management ; -with General 
Plans and Rules foi' their Organization and Operation ; toge- 
ther with Examinations as to their Comparative Advantages 
over the Omnibus Sj^stem, and Inquiries as to their Value for 
Investment; including Copies of Municipal Ordinances relat- 
ing thereto. By Alexander Easton, C. E. Illustrated by 2.^ 
plates, 8vo., cloth $2 00 

p32SYTH.— BOOK OF DESIGNS FOR HEAD-STONES, MTJRAL, 
*■ AND OTHER MONUMENTS : 

Cuntaining 7S Elaborate auil Esiiuisite Designs. By Forsyth. 

4to., cloth $5 00 

*^* This volume, for the beauty and variety of its designs, has 
never been surpassed by any publication of the kind, and should 
be in the hands of every marble-worker who does fine monumental 
work. 

pAIRBAIRN,— THE PRINCIPLES OF MECHANISM AND MA- 

^ CHINERY OF TRANSMISSION : 

Comprising the Principles of Mechanism, 'Wheels, and Pulleys, 
Strength and Proportions of Shafts, Couplings of Shafts, and 
Engaging and Disengaging Gear. By William Fairbairk, 
Esq., C. E., LL. D., F. Pv. S., F. G. S., Corresponding Member 
of the National Institute of France, and of the Roj-al Academy 
of Turin ; Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, etc. etc. Beau- 
tifully illustrated by over 150 wood-cuts. In one volume 12mo. 

§2 50 

■pAIREAIRN.— PRIME-MOVERS : 

Comprising the Accumulation of Water-power; the Construc- 
tion of Water-wheels and Turbines; the Properties of Steam; 
the Varieties of Steam-engines and Boilers and AVind-mills. 
By William Fairbairx, C. E., LL. D., F. R. S.. F. G. S. Au- 
thor of "Principles of ^lechanism and the Machinery of Trans- 
mission." With Numerous Illustrations. In one volume. (la 
press.) 

piLBART.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON BANKING: 

By James William Gilbart. To which is added: TnE Na- 
tional Baxk Act as now in force. Svo. . . $4 50 

pESNER.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON COAL, PETROLEUM, 

" AND OTHER DISTILLED OILS. 

By Abraham Gesxer, JI. P., F. G. S. Second edition, revised 
and enlarged. By George "Wfxtpex Ge.>xer, Consulting 
Chemist and Encineer. Illustrated. Svo. . . C3 50 



I 



HEIS^ST CARET BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. }:] 

n OTKIC ALBUM FOR CABHyTET MAKERS : 

Comprising a Collection of Designs for Gothic Furniture. Il- 
lustrated by twenty-three lai-ge and beautifully engraved 
plates. Oblong ^3 00 

n RANT.— BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND CULTIVATIOIT OE THE 
BEET : 
By E. B. Grant. ICmo. . . . . , $1 25 

nREGGRY.— MATHEMATICS FOR PRACTICAL MEN : 

Adapted to the Pursuits of Surveyors, Architects, Mechanics, 
and Civil Engineers. By Olinthus Geeoory. 8vo., plates, 
cloth $3 00 

HRISWOLD— RAILROAD ENGINEER'S POCKET COMPANION. 

Comprising Rules for Calculating Deflection Distances and 
Angles, Tangential Distances and Angles, and all Necessary 
Tables for Engineers ; also the art of Levelling from Prelimi- 
nary Survey to the Construction of P>,ailroads, intended Ex- 
pressly for the Young Engineer, together with Numerous Valu- 
able Ptules and Examples. By W. Griswold. 12mo., tucks. 

$1 75 
nUETTIER.— METALLIC ALLOYS: 

Being a Practical Guide to their Chemical and Physical Pro- 
perties, their Preparation, Composition, and Uses. Translated 
from the French of A. Gtjettier, Engineer and Director of 
Founderies, author of "La Fouderie en France," etc. etc. By 
A. A. Fesquet, Chemist and Engineer. In one volume, 12mo. 
(In press. ) 

TJATS AND FELTING : 

A Practical Treatise on their Manufacture. By a Practical 
Hatter. Illustrated by Drawings of JIachinery, &c., 8vo. 

TT AY.— THE INTERIOR DECORATOR : 

The Laws of Harmonious Coloring adapted to Interior Decora- 
tions: with a Practical Treatise on House-Painting. By D. 
R. Hat, House-Painter and Decorator. Illustrated by a Dia- 
gram of the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors. 12mo. 

$2 25 

TJirGHES.— AMERICAN MILLER AND MILLWRIGHT'S AS- 
""■ SISTANT : 

By Wm. Carter Hughes. A new edition. In one volume, 
12mo .... 5i 50 



14 



HENRY CAllEY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 



TTUNT— THE PEACTICE OF PHOTOGEAPIIY. 

By Robert Hunt, Vice-PresiJent of the Photograpliic Society, 
Londoa. "With numerous illustrations. 12mo., cloth . 75 



TJUEST.— A HAND-BOOK FOR ARCHITECTUEAL STJSVEYOES : 

Comprising Formula} useful in Designing Builders' work, Table 
of Weights, of the materials used in Building, Memoranda 
connected ■with Builders' work, Mensuration, the Practice of 
Builders' Measurement, Contracts of Labor, Valuation of Pro- 
perty, Summary of the Practice in Dilapidation, etc. etc. By 
J. F. IIuRST, C. E. 2d edition, pocket-book form, full bound 

$2 60 

piRVIS.— RAILWAY PROPERTY: 

A Treatise on the Construction and JManagement of Railways ; 
designed to afford useful knowledge, in the popular style, to the 
holders of this class of property ; as well as Railway Mana- 
gers, Officers, and Agents. By John B. Jervis, late Chief 
Engineer of the Hudson River Railroad, Croton Aqueduct, cic. 
One vol. 12mo., cloth .... . $2 00 



JOHNSON.— A REPORT TO THE NAVY DEPARTMENT OF THE 
" UNITED STATES ON AMERICAN COALS : 

Applicable to Steam Navigation and to other purposes. By 
Walter R. Johnson. With numerous illustrations. GOT pp. 
8vo., half morocco . . . . . . $10 00 



TOENSTON.— INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF SOILS, 
" LIMESTONES, AND MANURES- 

By J. W. F. Johnston. 12mo. .... 35 



TT-EENE.— A HAND-BOOK OF PRACTICAL GAUGING, 

For the Use of Beginners, to which is added a Chapter on Dis- 
tillation, describing the process in operation at the Custom 
House for ascertaining the strength of wines. By James B. 
Keenb, of H. M. Customs. Svo. . . . $1 25 



HENRY CAREY BATRD'S CATALOGUE. 15 



gENTISK.— A TSEATISE OH A BOX OF INSTRUMENTS, 

And tlie Slide Rule ; with the Theory of Trigonometry and Lo- 
garithms, including Practical Geometry, Surveying, Measur- 
ing of Timber, Cask and Malt Gauging, Heights, and Distances. 
By Thomas Kentish. In one volume. ]2mo. , . $1 25 



gOBELL.— ERNI.— MmERALOGY SIMPLIFIED : 

A short method of Determining and Classifying Minerals, by 
means of simple Chemical Experiments in the Wet Way. 
Translated from the last German Edition of F. Vox Kobell, 
with an Introduction to Blowpipe Analysis and other addi- 
tions. By Henki Erni, M. D., Chief Chemist, Department of 
Agriculture, author of <'Coal Oil and Petroleum." In one 
volume. 12mo. ... . . $2 50 



•^AITORIN.— A TREATISE OBT STEEL : 

Comprising its Theory, Metallurgy, Properties, Practical Work- 
ing, and Use. By M. H. C. Landrin, Jr., Civil Engineer. 
Translated from the French, with Notes, by A. A. Fesquet, 
Chemist and Engineer. With an Appendix on the Bessemer 
and the Martin Processes for Manufacturing Steel, from the 
Report of Abram S. Hewitt, United States Commissioner to 
the Universal Exposition, Paris, 1867. 12mo. . . $3 00 



■ ARKIN.— THE PRACTICAL BRASS AND IROF FOUNDER'S 
■^ GUIDE. 

A Concise Treatise on Brass Founding, Moulding, the Metals 
and their Alloys, etc. ; to which are added Recent Improve- 
ments in the Manufacture of Iron, Steel by the Bessemer Pro- 
cess, etc. etc. By James Lakkin, late Conductor of the Brass 
Foundry Department in Reany, Neafie & Co.'s Penn Works, 
Philadelphia. Fifth edition, revised, with extensive Addi- 
tions, la one volume. 12mo $2 25 



j6 IIEXRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 

T EAVITT.— FACTS ABOUT PEAT AS AN AETICLE OF FUEL : 

V/lth Remarks upon its Origin and Composition, the Localities 
m -which it is found, the Methods of Preparation and Manu 
facture, and the various Uses to which it is applicable; toge 
ther with many other matters of Practical and Scientific Inte- 
rest. To which is added a chapter on the Utilization of Coal 
Dust with Peat for the Production of an Excellent Fuel at 
Moderate Cost, especially adapted for Steam Service. By II. 
T. Leavitt. Third edition. 12kio. . . . §1 75 

TEEOUX— A PRACTICAL TKEATI3E 0^ THE MANUFAC- 

-^ TURS Oi? WOaSIEDS AND CAEDED YARNS: 

Translated from the French of Charles Leboux, Mechanical 
Engineer, and Superintendent of a Spinning Mill. By Dr. II. 
Paink, and a. A. Fesquet. Illustrated by 12 large plates. In 
cue volume Svo. . . . • . . . . $5 00 

TESLIE (MISS).— COMPLETE COOKERY: 

Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches. By Miss 
Leslie. COth edition. Thoroughly revised, with the addi- 
tion of New Receipts. In 1 vol. 12mo., cloth . . $1 50 

T ESLIE (MISS). LADIES' HOUSE EOOK : 

a Jlanual of Domestic Economy. 20th revised edition. 12mo., 
cloth ^1 25 

TESLIE (MISS).— TWO KUHDEED RECEIPTS IN FRENCH 
-'-' COOKERY. 

12mo. ......... 50 

T lEBEE.— ASSAYER'S GUIDE: 

Or, Practical Directions to Assayers, Miners, and Smelters, for 
the Tests and Assays, by Heat and by Wet Processes, for the 
Ores of all the principal Metals, of Gold and Silver Coins and 
Alloys, and of Coal, etc. By Oscar M. Lieber. 12mo., cloth 

§1 25 

T OVE.— THE ART OF DYEING, CLEANING, SCOURING, AND 

■*-' FINISHING : 

On the most approved English and French methods ; being 
Practical Instructions in Dyeing Silks, Woollens, and Cottons, 
Feathers, Chips, Straw, etc.; Scouring and Cleaning Bed and 
Window Curtains, Carpets, Rugs, etc.; French and English 
Cleaning, etc. By Thomas Love. Second American Edition, to 
which are added General Instructions for the Use of Aniline 
Colors. Svo 5 00 



I 



HENRY CAHEY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. IT 



tyrain and buowit.— auestions on subjects connected 
-lVI v/ith the marine steam-engine : 

And Examination Papers ; with Hints for their Solution. By 
Thomas J. Main, Professor of Mathematics, Royal Naval College, 
and Thomas Beown, Chief Engineer, R.N. 12mo., cloth $160 

TUTAIN AND BROWN.— THE INDICATOR AND DYNAMOMETEES 

■^■^ With their Practical Applications to the Steam-Engine. By 
Thomas J. Main, M.A. F. E,., Ass't Prof. Royal Naval College, 
Portsmouth, and Thomas Brovtn, Assoc. Inst. C. E., Chief En- 
gineer, R. N., attached to the R. N. College. Illustrated. From 
the Fourth London Edition. 8vo. . . . . $1 50 

MAIN AND BROWN.— THE MARINE STEAM-ENGINE. 
By Thomas J. Main, F. R. Ass't S. Mathematical Professor at 
Royal Naval College, and Thomas Brown, Assoc. Inst. C. E. 
Chief Engineer, R. N. Attached to the Royal Naval College. 
Authors of "Questions Connected with the Marine Steam-En- 
gine," and the '• Indicator and Dynamometer." With numerous 
Illustrations. In one volume 8vo $5 GO 

TWrARTIN.— SCREW-CTJTTING TABLES, FOR THE USE OF ME- 

^^ CHANICAL ENGINEERS: 

Showing the Proper Arrangement of Wheels for Cutting the 
Threads of Screws of any required Pitch ; with a Table for 
Making the Universal Gas-Pipe Thread and Taps. By W. A. 
Martin, Engineer. 8vo 50 

TyriLES— A PLAIN TREATISE ON HORSE-SHOEING. 

^ With Illustrations. By William Miles, author of " The Horse's 
Foot" $1 00 

MOLESWORTH.— POCKET-BOOK OF USEFUL FORMUL.ffi AND 
MEMORANDA FOR CIVIL AND MECHANICAL ENSINEERS. 
By Guilford L. Molesworth, Member of the Institution of 
Civil Engineers, Chief Resident Engineer of the Ceylon Railway. 
Second American from the Tenth London Edition. In_ one 
volume, full bound in pocket-book form . . . . $2 00 

TUrOORE.— THE INVENTOR'S GUIDE: 

Patent Office and Patent Laws : or, a Guide to Inventors, and a 
Book of Reference for Judges, Lawyers, Magistrates, and others. 
By J G. MoORE. 12mo., cloth $1 25 

■]y.TAPISa,— A MANUAL OF ELECTRO-METALLURGY : 

Including the Application of the Art to Manufacturing Processes. 
By Tames Napier. Fourth American, from the Fourth London 
edition, revised and enlarged. Illustrated by engravings. In 
one volume, Bvo. . . ' $2 00 



18 HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 

•JO-APIEK.— A SYSTEM OF CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO DYEING : 

By James Napier, F. C. S. A New and Thoroughly Revised 
Edition, completely brought up to the present state of the 
Science, including the Chemistry of Coal Tar Colors. By A. A. 
Fesquet, 'Chemist and Engineer. With an Appendix on Dyeing 
and Calico Printing, as shown at the Paris Universal Exposition 
of J8G7, from the Reports of the International Jurjs etc. Illus- 
trated. In one volume 8vo., 400 pages . . . . $5 00 

■vrEWBESY. — GLEANINGS FROM ORNAMENTAL ART OF 
•^^ EVERY STYLE; 

Drawn from Examples in the British, South Kensington, Indian, 
Crystal Palace, and other Museums, the Exhibitions of 1S51 and 
1862, and the best English and Foreign works. In a series of one 
hundred exquisitely drawn Plates, containing many hundred ex- 
amples. By Robert Newbery. 4to $15 00 

•jyjICHOLSON.— A MANUAL OF THE ART OF BOOK-BINDING : 

Containing full instructions in the different Branches of Forward- 
ing, Gilding, and Finishing. Also, the Art of Marbling Book- 
edges and Paper. By James B. Nicholson. Illustrated. 12mo. 
cloth .... $2 25 

■VrORRIS.— A HAND-BOOK FOR LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS AND 

^^ MACHINISTS: 

Comprising the Proportions and Calculations for Constructing 
Locomotives ; Manner of Setting Valves ; Tables of Squares, 
Cubes, Areas, etc. etc. By Septimus Noeris, Civil and Me- 
chanical Engineer. New edition. Illustrated, 12mo., cloth 

$2 00 

■M-YSTROM. — ON TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND THE 
^^ CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS AND SCREW PROPELLERS : 

For Naval and Marine Engineers. By John W. Nystrom, late 
Acting Chief Engineer U. S. N. Second edition, revised with 
additional matter. Illustrated by seven engravings. 12mo. 

$2 50 

'NEILL.— A DICTIONARY OF DYEING AND CALICO PRINT- 
ING: 

Containing a brief account of all the Substances and Processes in 
use in the Art of Dyeing and Printing Textile Fabrics : with Prac- 
tical Receipts and Scientific Information. By Charles O'Neill, 
Analytical Chemist; Fellow of the Chemical Society of London; 
Member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester ; 
Author of " Chemistry of Calico Printing and Dyeing." To which 
is added An Essay on Coal Tar Colors and their Application to 







HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 19 







Dyeing and Calico Printing. By A. A. Fesquet, Chemist and 
Engineer. With an Appendix on Dyeing and Calico Printing, as' 
shown at the Exposition of 1867, from the Reports of the Interna, 
tional Jury, etc. In one volume 8vo., 491 pages . . $6 (iO 

QSBORN.— THE METALLURGY OF IRON AND STEEL : 

Theoretical and Practical : In all its Branches ; AVith Special Re- 
ference to American Materials and Processes. By H. S. Osborn, 
LL. D., Professor of Mining and Metallurgy in Lafayette College, 
Easton, Pa. Illustrated by 230 Engravings on Wood, and 6 
Folding Plates. Svo., 972 pages ..... $10 00 
SSORN.— AMERICAN MINES AND MINING : 

Theoretically and Practically Considered. By Prof 11. S. Os- 
BORN, Illustrated by numerous engravings. Svo. {In preparation.) 

pAINTER, GILDER, AND VARNISHER'S COMPANION : 

Containing Rules and Regulations in everything relating to the 
Arts of Painting, Gilding, Varnishing, and Glass Staining, with 
numerous useful and valuable Receipts; Tests for the Detection 
of Adulterations in Oils and Colors, and a statement of the Dis- 
eases and Accidents to which Painters, Gilders, and Varnishers 
are particularly liable, with the simplest methods of Prevention 
and Remedy. With Directions for Graining, Marbling, Sign Writ- 
ing, and Gilding on Glass. To which are added Complete Instruc- 
tions FOR Coach Painting and Varnishing. 12mo., cloth, $1 50 

lALLETT.— THE MILLER'S, MILLWRIGHT'S, AND ENGI- 
NEER'S GUIDE. 
By Henry Pallett. Illustrated. In one vol. 12mo. . $3 00 

lERKINS,— GAS AND VENTILATION. 

Practical Treatise on Gas and Ventilation. With Special Relation 
to Illuminating, Heating, and Cooking by Gas. Including Scien- 
tific Helps to Engineer-students and others. With illustrated 
Diagrams. By E. E. Perkins. 12mo., cloth . , . $1 25 

lERKINS AMD STOWE.— A NEW GUIDE TO THE SHEET-IRON 
AND BOILER PLATE ROLLER: 

Containing a Series of Tables showing the Weight of Slabs and 
Piles to Produce Boiler Plates, and of the Weight of Piles and the 
Sizes of Bars to Produce Sheet-iron ; the Thickness of the Bar 
Gauge in Decimals ; the Weight per foot, and the Thickness on 
the Bar or Wire Gauge of the fractional parts of an inch; the 
Weight per sheet, and the Thickness on the Wire Gauge of Sheet- 
iron of various dimensions to weigh 112 lbs. per bundle ; and the 
conversion of Short Weight into Long Weight, and Long Weight 
into Short. Estimated and collected by G. H, Perkins and J. G- 
iStowb $2 L** 



P 



20 HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 

pHILLIPS AND DARLINGTON.— RECORDS OF MINING AND 
•*■ METALLURGY : 

Or, Facts and. Memoranda for the wse of the Mine Afjent anil 
Smelter. By J. Arthur Phillips, Mining Engineer, Graduate of 
the Imperial School of Mines, France, etc., and John Darlington. 
Illustrated by numerous engravings. In one vol. 12mo. . $2 00 

pRADAL, MALEPEYRE, AND DITSSADCE. — A COMPLETE 

•"" TREATISE ON PERFUMERY: 

Containing notices of the Raw Material used in the Ait, and the 
Be.st Formulae. According to the most approved Methods followed 
in France, England, and the United States. By M. P. Pradal, 
Perfumer-Chemist, and M. F. Malepeyre. Translated from the 
French, with extensive additions, by Prof. H. DussAUCE. 8vo. $10 

pROTEAUX.— PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR THE MANUFACTURE 
^ OF PAPER AND BOARDS. 

By A. Proteaux, Civil Engineer, and Graduate of the School of 
Arts and Manufactures, Director of Thiers's Paper Mill, 'Puy-de- 
DOme. "With additions, by L. S. Le Normand. Translated from 
the French, with Notes, by Horatio Paine, A. B., M. D. To 
which is added a Chapter on the Manufacture of Paper from Wood 
in the United States, by Henry T. Brown, of the "American 
Artisan." Illustrated bj^ six plates, containing Drawings of Raw 
Materials, Machinery, Plans of Paper-Mills, etc. etc. 8vo. $5 00 

pEGNAULT.— ELEMENTS OF CHEMISTRY. 

By M. V. Regnault. Translated from the French by T. For- 
rest Benton, M. B. , and edited, with notes, by James C. Booth, 
Melter and Refiner U. S. Mint, and Wjt. L. Faber, Metallurgist 
and Mining Engineer. Illustrated by nearly 700 wood engravings. 
Comprising nearly 1500 pages. In two vols. 8vo., cloth $10 00 

pEID.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE MANUFACIURE OF 

•^ PORTLAND CEMENT: 

By Henry Reid, C. E. To which is added a Translation of M. 
A. Lipowitz's Work, describing anew method adopted in Germany 
of Manufacturing that Cement. By W. F. Reid. Illustrated by 
plates and wood engravings. Svo. . . . . . $7 00 

piFFAULT, VERGNAUD, AND TOUSSAINT.— A PRACTICAL 

^ TREATISE ON THE MANUFACTURE OF COLORS FOR 
PAINTING : 

Containing the best Formulre and the Processes the Newest and 
in most General Use. By MM. Riffault, Vergnaud, andTous- 
."^AiNT. Revised and Edited by M. F. Malepeyre and Dr. Ejiil 
Winckler. Illustrated by Engravings. In one vol. Svo. {Lt 
fri'pr/ration.) 



HEXRY CAREY BATRD'S CATALOGUE. 21 



pIFFAULf, VESGIJAUD, AIJ3 TOUSSAINI.— A PSACTICAL 
TSEATISE ON THE MAITUFACTUEE OF VAEI<7ISIiES : 
By MM. RiFPAUjLT, Vergxaud, and Toussaint. Revised and 
Edited by M. F. Malepeyee and Dr. Emil Winckler. Illus- 
trated. In one vol. 8vo. {In preparation.) 

^HUNK.— A PEACTICAL TREATISE ON RAIL¥/AY CUEVES 
^ AND LOC/ITION, FOE YOTJNG ENGINEEES. 

By Wm. F. Shunk, Civil Engineer. 12mo., tncks . . $2 00 

OMEATON.— BUILDER'S POCKET COMPANION: 

Containing the Elements of Building, Surveying, and Architec. 
ture ; with Practical Rules and Instructions connected with the sub- 
ject. By A. C. Smeaton, Civil Engineer, etc. In one volume, 
12mo $1 60 

HMITH.— THE DYER'S INSTRUCTOR: 

Comprising Practical Instructions in the Art of Dyeing Silk, Cot- 
ton, AVool, and "Worsted, and Woollen Goods: containing nearly 
800 Receipts. To which is added a Treatise on the Art of Pad- 
ding ; and the Printing of Silk Warps, Skeins, and Handkerchiefs, 
and the various Mordants and Colors for the different styles of 
such work. By Dayid Smith, Pattern Dyer, 12mo., cloth 

$3 00 
QMITH.— THE PRACTICAL DYER'S GUIDE: 

Comprising Practical Instructions in the Dyeing of Shot Cobourgs, 
Silk Striped Orleans, Colored Orleans from Black Warps, ditto 
from White Warps, Colored Cobourgs from White Warps, Merinos, 
Yarns, Woollen Cloths, etc. Containing nearly 300 Receipts, to 
most of which a Dyed Pattern is annexed. Also, a Treatise on 
the Art of Padding. By David Smith. In one vol. Svo. $25 00 

^HAW.— CIVIL ARCHITECTURE : 

Being a Complete Theoretical and Practical System of Building, 
containing the Fundamental Principles of the Art. By Edward 
Shaw, Architect. .To which is added a Treatise on Gothic Archi- 
tecture, <tc. By Thomas W. Silloway and George M. Hard- 
ing , Architects. The whole illustrated by 102 quarto plates finely 
engraved on copper. Eleventh Edition. 4to. Cloth. $10 00 

OLOAN.— AMERICAN HOUSES : 

A variety of Original Designs for Rural rniLlings. Illustrated by 
26 colored Engravings, Avilh Descriptive Reference!-.. By Samuel 
Sloan, Architect, author of the " Model Architect," etc. etc. Svo. 

$2 50 

aCHINZ.—RESEARCHES ON TEE ACTION OF THE BLAST. 
•^ FURNACE. 

By Chas. Schinz, Seven plates. 12mo. . . . $4 25 



22 HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 

OMITH.— PARKS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS : 

Or, Practical Notes on Country Residences, Villas, Public Parks, 
and Gardens. By Charles H. J. Smith, Landscape Gardener 
and Garden Arcliitect, etc. etc. 12mo. . , . . $2 25 

OTOKES.— CABINET-MAKER'S AND UPHOLSTERER'S COMPA- 
^ NION : 

Comprising the Rudiments and Principles of Cabinet-making and 
Upholstery, with Familiar Instructions, Illustrated by Examples 
for attaining a Proficiency in the Art of Drawing, as applicable 
to Cabinet-work ; The Processes of Veneering, Inlaj'ing, and 
Buhl-work ; the Art of Dyeing and Staining Wood, Bone, Tortoise 
Shell, etc. Directions for Lackering, Japanning, and Varnishing ; 
to make French Polish ; to prepare the Best Glues, Cements, and 
Compositions, and a number of Receipts, particularly for workmen 
generally. By J. Stokes. In one vol. 12mo. With illustrations 

$1 25 

OTRENGTH AND OTHER PROPERTIES OF METALS. 

Reports of Experiments on the Strength and other Properties of 
Metals for Cannon. With a Description of the Machines for Test- 
ing Metals, and of the Classification of Cannon in service. By 
Officers of the Ordnance Department U. S. Army. By authority 
of the Secretary of War. Illustrated by 25 large steel plates. In 
1 vol. quarto . $10 00 

^ULLIVAN.— PROTECTION TO NATIVE INDUSTRY. 

*^ By Sir Edward Sullivan, Baronet. (1870.) 8vo. . $1 50 

rriABLES SHOWING THE WEIGHT OF ROUND, SQUARE, AND 
•'- FLAT BAR IRON, STEEL, ETC. 

By Measurement. Cloth 63 

rPAYLOR.— STATISTICS OF COAL: 

Including Mineral Bituminous Substances employed in Arts and 
Manufactures; with their Geographical, Geological, and Commer- 
cial Distribution and amount of Production and Consumption on 
the American Continent. With Incidental Statistics of the Iron 
Manufacture. By R. C. Taylor. Second edition, revised by S. 
S. Haldejian. Illustrated by five Maps and many wood engrav- 
ings. 8vo., cloth . . . . . . . . $6 00 

rpEMPLETON.— THE PRACTICAL EXAMINATOR ON STEAM 
■*• AND THE STEAM-ENGINE : 

With Instructive References relative thereto, for the Use of Engi- 
neers, Students, and others. By Wm. Templeton, Engineer, ]2mo. 

$1 25 



HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 23 

(TlHOMAS.— THE MODERl? PRACTICS OF PHOTOGEAPHY. 

■^ By R. W. Thomas, F.C.S. 8vo., cloth . ... 75 

rPHOMSOH.— FREIGHT CI-IAR31S CALCULATOR. 

■^ By Andhew Thomson, Freight Agent . . . . $1 25 

'JIURNING : SPECIMEETS OF FAHCY TURN'IITG EXECUTED OIJ 

•^ THE HA¥D OR FOOT LATHE : 

With Geometric, Oval, and Eccentric Chucks, and Elliptical Cut- 
ting Frame. By an Amateur. Illustrated by^ 30 exquisite Pho- 
tographs. 4to . . . $3 00 

^pURNER'S (THE) COMPANIOIN': 

Containing Instructions in Concentric, Elliptic, and Eccentric 
Turning; also various Plates of Chucks, Tools, and Instru- 
ments ; and Directions for using the Eccentric Cutter, Drill, 
Vertical Cutter, and Circular Rest ; with Patterns and Instruc- 
tions for working them. A new edition in 1 vol. 12mo. $1 50 

TTRBIN — BRULL. — A PRACTICAL GUIBE FOR PUDDLING 
^ IRON AND STEEL. 

By Ed. Uebtn, Engineer of Arts and Manufactures. A Prize 
Essny read before the Association of Engineers, Graduate of the 
School of Mines, of Liege, Belgium, at the Meeting of 1865-6. 
To which is added a Comparison op the Resisting Properties 
OF Iron and Steel. By A. Brull. Translated from the Freach 
by A. A. Fesquet, Chemist and Engineer. In one volume, 8vo. 

$1 00 

TTOGDES.— THE ARCHITECT'S AND BUILDER'S POCKEl COM- 
* P ANION AND PRICE BOOK. 

By F. W. VoGDES, Architect. Illustrated. Full bound in pocket- 
book form. . . . . . . . . .$2 00 

In book form, 18mo., muslin . . = . . . 1 60 

WARN.— THE SHEET METAL WORKER'S INSTRUCTOR, FOR 
•'' ZINC, SHEET-IRON, COPPER AND TIN PLATE WORK- 
ERS, &c. 

By Reuben Henry Warn, Practical Tin Plate AVorker. Illus- 
trated by 32 plates and 37 wood engravings. 8vo. . . $3 CO 

m-ATSON,— A MANUAL OF THE HAND-LATHE. 

*' By Egbert P. Watson, Late of the " Scientific American," Au- 
thor of " Modern Practice of American Machinists and Engi- 
neers," In one volume, 12mo. . . . . . $1 50 



24 HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S CATALOGUE. 

WATSON.— THE MODERN PRACTICE OF AMERICAN MA- 
*^ CHINISTS AND ENGINEERS : 

Including the Construction, Application, and Use of Drills, Lathe 
Tools, Cutters for Boring Cylinders, and Hollow Work Generally, 
with the most Economical Speed of the same, the Results verified 
by Actual Practice at the Lathe, the Vice, and on the Floor. 
Together with Worhshop management, Economy of Manufacture, 
the Steam-Engine, Boilers, Gears, Belting, etc. etc. By Egbert 
P. Watson, late of the "Scientific American." Illustrated by 
eighty-six engravings. 12mo. . . . . . $2 50 

WATSON.— THE THEORY AiJD PRACTICE OF THE ART OF 
''* WEAVING BY HAND AND POWER: 

With Calculations and Tables for the use of those connected -with 
the Trade. By John Watson, Manufacturer and Practical Machine 
Maker. Illustrated by large drawings of the best Power-Looms. 
8vo. $10 00 

TTfTEATHERLY.— TREATISE ON .THE ART OF BOILING SU- 
'* GAR, CRYSTALLIZING, LOZENGE-MAKING, COMFITS, 
GUM GOODS, 

And other processes for Confectionery, &c. In which are ex- 
plained, in an easy and familiar manner, the various Methods 
of Manufacturing every description of Raw and Refined Sugar 
Goods, as sold by Confectioners and others . . . $2 00 

ILL.— TABLES FOR aUALITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. 
By Prof. Heinrich Will, of Giessen, Germany. Seventh edi- 
tion. Translated by Charles F. Himes, Ph. D., Professor of 
Natural Science, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. . . $1 25 

ILLIAMS.— ON HEAT AND STEAM : 

Embracing New Views of Vaporization, Condensation, and E.xpan- 
sion. By Charles Wye Williams, A. I. C. E. Illustrated. 8vo. 

$3 60 

WORSSAM.— ON MECHANICAL SAWS: 

From the Transactions of the Society of Engineers, 1867. By 
S. W. WoRSSAM, Jr. Illustrated by IS large folding plates. 8vo. 

$5 00 

■yy'oHLER.— A HAND-BOOK OF MINERAL ANALYSIS. 

By F. WoHLER. Edited by H. B. Nasox, Professor of Chemistry, 
Rensselaer Institute, Troy, N. Y. With numerous Illustrations. 
I2mo $3 00 



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